New Life for the Old Still: DIY Ethanol

Ralph White welds together the parts of the distilling column of a still in Tullahoma, Tenn. on Friday, May 12, 2006. The mechanism allows the still to produce ethanol, 190 proof grain alcohol, that can be mixed with gasoline to reduce automobile fuel costs by about two-thirds. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) (Mark Humphrey - AP)

Sasher's stills, which stand about 6 feet tall and easily fit in an airy garage corner, sell for about $1,400 each. Blueprints each sell for about $45 and buyers who are good salvagers can build a still themselves for less than $1,000, McClanahan said.

Marrcus Mollenarro, a Kenosha, Wis., businessman, has bought one of Sasher's stills to make it cheaper to run his six personal and business vehicles.

"We don't have to use oil from the Middle East. There are options," Mollenarro said

Dubose Porter of Dublin, Ga., a state representative and editor of The Courier Herald, said the newspaper has ordered a still to help offset delivery costs.

"The still idea is intriguing for a small company like ours," he said.

Using ethanol to power cars isn't new. The Model T Ford was originally built to run on alcohol.

Sasher said any modern-day car can run on a mixture of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline. Most vehicle engines can use blends of up to 25 percent ethanol.

More than 30 models of new flex-fuel cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles _ including General Motors' Yukon and Ford's Taurus _ can use up to 85 percent ethanol, known as E85 fuel.

McClanahan said most of her customers go to the gas pump "fill up 80 percent full and fill up the rest with alcohol."

Her company advises its customers to check their owner's manual and consult with the manufacturers to see what blend of ethanol their cars can use. The Web site http://www.e85fuel.com provides advice, too.

The Dogwood Energy still is one that Sasher, 57, developed by modifying designs that date to the 1970s gas shortages.

Its great advantage is cooking the mash at just the right temperature, 170 degrees, according to John Franklin, a former engine company design engineer and educator in Evansville, Ind., who has ordered two of the stills.