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Gas prices in your area?
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by bdgee: [QB] Pure ethanol (100% ethanol) will indeed pull water out of the air. It will until it reaches 5% water; which, with 95% ethanol forms an azeotrope which cannot be separated via distillation, then it will separate no more water from the air. That mixture will burn quite readily in an internal combustion engine (or otherwise) and, without instrumentation to detect the difference, pderformance is not noticeable different from 100% ethanol. Ethanol left in a "vented" and partially filled fuel tank that is otherwise closed to the atmosphere will "collect" water, which being heavier than the ethanol, will settle to the bottom. Then, with the outlet to the engine at the bottom of the tank, if enough has collected, that water feeds to the fuel lines to the engine and will not burn. [i]That same thing happens if the tank is empty or if it is partially full of any liquid which is not miscible with water and lighter than water, [b]including gasoline or diesel fuel.[/b][/i] That is why the fuel tanks on aircraft are supplied with an easily actuated drain at the bottom of the fuel system. The culprit is not the fuel, even if it is ethanol, but naturally occurring temperature variations, which allow water in the air filling that part of the tank not filled with fuel to condense along the inner sides of the tank at lower temperatures (it's called dew), then work downward via gravity and through the lighter weight fuel, collecting at the bottom. With warmer air temperatures (like the next night), the air expands and part of it is expelled to the outside but, when the air again cools, fresh water containing air is breathed into the tank for a new cycle and more water condenses. It may only takes a couple of nights for enough water to collect at the bottom of the tank to result in engine failure. You can stop the whole process by installing caps to the tank vents that are shut whenever the engine isn't to be used. It isn't the ethanol that causes the condensation and it happens at exactly the same rate with gasoline. In either case it can cause engine failure. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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