Personal Ethanol Fermenter and Distiller

This is a science fair project a friend and I did in high school. We ended up taking this project to the 2008 International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, Georgia. The machine doesn't look professionally made, but like I said, it's a prototype science fair project made by high schoolers. The goal of this project was to make a machine that could produce ethanol with little human assistance. The highest ethanol content achieved was 80% alcohol, which isn't as high as industrial ethanol, but I think that's pretty good for high school students. Enjoy.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Personal
• Ethanol
• Machine

[jlvfpoulo]

Hi, I congratulate you for your work, this is excellent. Note that if you distill one or two more times will reach 90% or more, and you could use pure alcohol in a gasoline engine.

In Spain I am working on a similar project, which also includes the use in motors, but I have troubles in getting the enzymes, at least to get them in small quantities. I wanted to ask where you got your enzymes to see if I could also get hold of them through the same channel even if purchased in the USA.

Thanks.

[Dave51262]

Great job! How much does 1 gallon of ethanol cost with this process? Just in materials (corn, enzymes, yeast, etc.)?