I have some interest in how conversions are performed
for a 13B to run ethanol. DO you have any information
or sites that may be helpful?

with kind regards,

Bobby Richards

We have a guy on here planning on running his 3 rotor
on alcohol. I am sure Doug will say something about it.
Lots of drag racing people run alcohol in their rotaries.

Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.

Hi Bobby,

Yes I am planning to run my rotary engine on denatured ethanol.  Denatured
is what happens to your personality if you drink the stuff:)  No seriously,
its worse than that. As Aussie Paul Carey would agree, Yadie.

US law states that at least 5% by volume, of some non drinkable substance,
like gasoline, must be added to the mix to prevent ethanol from finding its
way into the beverage industry. Ethanol is energy intensive to distill and
glycerol is used in the process to absorb the remaining water to allow
higher proofs. Over 190 proof gets pricey. For the rotary apex seal
lubrication  we want to add some oil into the fuel and biodiesel has known
lubricating qualities so I am interested to try this substance in the mix.
Perhaps I still might have to add some two cycle oil in as well.  We will
see.

I don't have any running tests done on ethanol as yet and probably won't get
to that part of testing until next spring. The people who have tremendous
experience are the researchers at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

http://www.baylor.edu/bias/index.php?id=110

I personally counted  at least 7 planes, both experimental and certified,
there flying on ethanol albeit with Lyncosaurus engines.  For airplane use
Baylor was able to install domed helicopter pistons in their Pitts aircraft
engines to bring the compression ratio up to 11:1  Perhaps we can turbo
charge the rotary using the high  compression rotors.  Using the Renesis
engine in a turbo configuration with ethanol may hopefully give me the 300hp
I desire.

Several racers on this news group are running methanol (derived from fossil
fuels) and they would have valuable advice for you as well.

Good points:

Alcohol runs cooler, cleaner, produces 10 to 20% more horsepower, lower
stoiometric ratio 9:1,lowers detonation limits thus allowing you to run a
higher boost settings before encountering detonation, and if ethanol cost
less and is made from renewable resources.

Downsides:

1. Corrosive to aluminum and certain rubbers necessitating properly coated
tanks, Teflon lined fuel pipes and Viton O rings.

2. B.S.F.C. increases thus lowering your mileage. At some power settings you
can obtain the same BSFC as gasoline though.

3. Increase weight. About 6.6lbs/gal. About the same as Jet A.

4. Requires a hotter and longer duration spark to ignite it completely.

I am making biodiesel now and designing a redox still at the moment to make
my own moo... I mean ethanol fuel:)

Let me know if you need any contacts to people or companies producing
ethanol.  I have been searching the world over for locations.


Cheers

Doug in Japan

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