Ethanol and water

[Noelm]

I was just dreaming again and I had a thought (I know pretty rare happening) but it seems to be pretty common knowledge that Ethanol absorbs moisture/water correct? now lets say you had a fuel tank with water in it, do you reckon it would be feasible to syphon as much fuel out as possible, then fill it with E10, leave it sit for a week or two, then syphon it all out again thereby removing the absorbed water with the E10? anyone know anything about the make up of E10 and if that would be possible? there is lots of stories about metho and so on, but that does not work, it never did and never will, unless you have a tiny amount of water only, (no petrol) and tip in a few litres of metho.

[Noelm]

just to add something else, is Ethanol available to buy in a reasonable quantity, and does pure/raw? Ethanol absorb water?

[krill]

I think you will find it difficult to purchase ethanol. But metho is just ethanol with a small amount of denaturing agent to stop people drinking it.

Ethanol is water soluble. If you had an amount of water in a vessel, then poured ethanol over it, a single solution of ethanol/water mixture would form. This useful property is exploited in the substance known as BEER.

With a layer of fuel above the water, things will get more complex. Why not experiment with what you are trying to do in a glass jar using metho? Results would be quite interesting.

[testlab]

I was just dreaming again and I had a thought (I know pretty rare happening) but it seems to be pretty common knowledge that Ethanol absorbs moisture/water correct? now lets say you had a fuel tank with water in it, do you reckon it would be feasible to syphon as much fuel out as possible, then fill it with E10, leave it sit for a week or two, then syphon it all out again thereby removing the absorbed water with the E10? anyone know anything about the make up of E10 and if that would be possible? there is lots of stories about metho and so on, but that does not work, it never did and never will, unless you have a tiny amount of water only, (no petrol) and tip in a few litres of metho.

I don't know how long it would take for ethanol to absorb water like that. But something like this

http://www.redlineoil.com.au/product-information.asp
(RL163 water remover and anti-freeze)

or this http://www.sierrachem.com.au/html/fuel_fix.html

may do the job without chucking out more fuel than necessary.

[trueblue]

I had a mechanic suggest to me a while ago to throw a cup of metho into the fuel now and then, just prior to burning off most of a tank of fuel. he reckoned that now and again, this was good to remove minute quantities of water from the tank, but to make sure that the fuel was not left sitting in the tank once the metho was inserted.

[D river]

I just remove my tank and fuel line and empty all remaining fuel into jerrys and misus car then rinse and dry tank and line with metho, then before next trip i rinse them again with metho n put back in. On my boat this is very easy done as both my tanks lift out (140L & 60L) seems alot cheaper than filling with E10 then dumping it & where do you dump that much fuel.

[Roughasguts]

Just use a fuel / water separator and leave the Ethanol in the bowser.

[Moonlighter]

Just use a fuel / water separator and leave the Ethanol in the bowser.

Couldnt agree more!

Cheers

ML

[Axl]

Just use a fuel / water separator and leave the Ethanol in the bowser.

I couldnt agree more well said Roughasguts.

Whilst the theory sounds plausable (wonder if we can get Mythbusters in) I think that you could cause more problems than you need if not done right.

[Moonlighter]

Noel

I think the problem is that the fuel/ethanol mix can only stand a certain % of water to be added before it causes the dreaded "phase separation" to occur.

I can't tell you the actual % of water in the mix to cause this, maybe someone like Gary Fooks might have that data because he's done a lot of research on this issue.

Cheers

ML

[Roughasguts]

I think the worst thing is E10 some water suspended in the fuel and a fuel injection system. When the injectors get some moisture and sit for a few weeks then you got a real exspensive problem from rusty injectors.

Cheers.

[stevel3]

has anyone on here tried using Castrol fuel doctor, it is suppose to help remove/burn moisture from fuel, plus it kills any bacteria in the fuel keeping it fresher for longer. It is also meant to clean the entire fuel system as well. I havent used it in my boat so far but used to use it in my car and truck and never had had any fuel related problems with either vehicle. My current ute runs on lpg thats why I havent thought about using it again until I saw this post.