Just for fun......E-85 mods to an auger motor?

[hydro]

ST, The reason I have been running this thread is just to explore how E-85 operates in contrast to gasoline. Since it is about 85% ethanol, it really is not oxygenated gasoline but rather gasoline modified ethanol. The gasoline is added primarily to facilitate starting the engine. Two very different animals.

[hydro]

Time to call it a night. Here's the last bit......

Since burning a fuel releases its stored energy we can calculate the potential relative power outputs from the same motor burning different fuels. Since the volume of air was held constant, the variable is the weight of the fuel and the energy released per pound. Remember, gasoline has 19,000 BTU/lb and E-85 only has 13,500 BTU/lb., and the best power ratio for gasoline is 12.5:1, and for E-85 it is 6.875:1.

Assume that running the motor for a given amount of time will move 100 lbs of air. We can calculate as follows:

Gasoline ratio: 100/12.5 = 8 lbs of gasoline @ 19,000 BTU/lb = 152,000 BTU

E-85 ratio: 100/6.975 = 14.337 lbs of E85 @ 13,475 BTU/lb = 193,189.9

The E-85 motor theoretically can produce 27% more energy (horsepower) than the gasoline motor!

Now add in the possibility of running a compression ratio of 14:1 to further increase combustion efficiency and you can see where there is an advantage to this fuel where it is possible to use it!

Disclaimer: I freely admit that I have not accounted for fuel vaporization, and other things that can affect efficiency, but the idea is there.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread today. I know it was a learning experience for me as I understood how this works this morning, but had almost none of the figures to work with. I have to thank Google and various sites that concurred on the values that I have posted.

I also want to say that while this may be an interesting idea, both riffraff and McGurk hit the problem early on in that it would be almost impossible to cold start an E-85 motor at say 0 degrees, due to the difficulty in vaporizing the fuel.

Now, get off the internet and go fishing! Hydro AFK

[magicstix]

That was fun! Thanks Hydro!

[Surface Tension]

Not to be a stickler but your post was E-85 mods to an auger motor.

That was covered but you went in different directions during the thread.

Your not going to see any increase in HP in this mod and of coarse you'll use around %25 more fuel. E85 has the "potential" to increase performance but as said we're not about to add a booster or up the compression, this was just a E85 Mod to an auger.

[hydro]

Frank, The "Auger motor" was simply a reference to something site viewers would feel comfortable associating with.

On the power output, you did not read through my last post. At the Stoichiometric ratio that creates the most power, which has been defined as 6.9 parts air to 1 part ethanol, vs. gasoline at 12.5 parts air to 1 part gasoline, you burn 44.5% more ethanol for the same amount of air consumed, not 25%. Even with the lower energy content of ethanol, you still produce more power by burning a LOT more fuel.

[Whoaru99]

The numbers I've seen for E85 are 9.8 stoich and a tick under 8 for max power. Probably should keep consistent terminology though for the fuel, E85 / E100 type of thing since I get easily confused when someone says "ethanol". Do they really mean E10, E30, E85? Technically is should be E100, but in reality that's not usually what's intended.

Gasoline stoichiometric 14.7

Gasoline max power rich 12.5

Gasoline max power lean 13.23

E85 stoichiometric 9.765

E85 max power rich 6.975

E85 max power lean 8.4687

E100 stoichiometric 9.0078

E100 max power rich 6.429

E100 max power lean 7.8