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Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.24] on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 12:51:22 :
In Reply to: Re: Ethanol-free gasoline posted by Mike Hernke [63.151.218.18] on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 11:52:34 :
drygas is methanol. Ethanol and methanol both absorb water but for whatever reason, methanol is much better than the ethanol at mixing that water in with the gas. I think within reason, a little bit of ethanol in the gas will remove a little bit of water from the tank, but it's not like you're buying drygas out of the pump. Also, all ethanol has a certain amount of water in it. I don't recall how high a proof you can get just by distilling, but it's less than 200. The only way to get 200 proof (pure ethanol) is by drying it with concentrated sulfuric acid or other chemical desiccant. Strong ethanol left to sit out in the air will absorb moisture from the air and dilute itself. I don't know how much of a factor this is in gasoline blends, but the upshot is that if you have ethanol, you'll always have some moisture in it.
One thing I learned the hard way is that ethanol will NOT serve to mix water in with diesel. I had some water in the tank of my multifuel wrecker and thought I'd deal with it by pouring in a gallon of denatured alcohol (ethanol). The alcohol just sat on top of the diesel. I stirred it up somewhat and it still floated to the top. I asked my chemist friend about it and he said only methanol would work for that.