[Corvettaholic]

We all know that engines run off gasoline. Nice and easy. Now what about those alcohol racing engines? I know its the same basic idea, add an appropriate amount of fuel, suck in the right amount air, apply spark, and you get boom and piston movement. I understand gasoline plenty fine, nice and high energy and runs great off something like 14 parts air to 1 part gasoline. Now what kind of alcohol is used for engine use? Ethanol as in the drinking kind? I've actually had an old car of mine run off of everclear before, but it was a gasoline engine. And with alcohol, don't you need add a LOT more air to the aerated alcohol to get a good boom out of it?

[jdurg]

I believe that the cars which run on alcohol use methanol.  

[Corvettaholic]

You referring to the nitro-meth cars? Thats a whole different ballgame, I know how those work. Needs something like 1.5 part fuel to 1 part air, or something ridiculous like that. I think alcohol works off the same principle? But I can't see how you would get any real power out of burning alcohol.

[movies]

I am pretty sure that race cars run on primarily methanol.  I don't remember any of the math, but I think that it is actually very favorable energetically.

All cars in Brazil run off methanol too.  It's a relatively cheap fuel, it's just damned toxic if it gets spilled.

[jdurg]

It's also dangerous if it catches fire since methyl alcohol flames are 100% invisible.  

[movies]

It's also dangerous if it catches fire since methyl alcohol flames are 100% invisible.  

I did not know that!  I should be more careful with methanol around the lab.

[Limpet Chicken]

I work with MeOH and anhydrous methanol sometimes, I've always seen a pale blue flame coming off methyl alcohol, especially MeOH.

[Unsichtbar]

(...)
All cars in Brazil run off methanol too.  It's a relatively cheap fuel, it's just damned toxic if it gets spilled.

One correction: Some cars in Brazil run off ethanol or a mixture of gasoline + ethanol. Ethanol is produced from sugarcane. Methanol's much dangerous in a hot weather.

[Bosnian_hero]

You asked the question where chemists can help with knowledge, but I can help you with experience. Methanol, Ethanol and Propanol are "weak" fuels. If you want a racing car than you must use Butanol and a high engine-compression ratio. 16:1 or more. I am not talking air to fuel, I am talking compression of fuel. If you do that you can run a car with 22-25% more power and 11% more milleage, depending on the car type and the correct compression ratio.
I tuned my mercedes to run on butanol, I get nearly 720HP (its 607HP on normal fuel).

[Donaldson Tan]

bosnian_hero, is your mercs still in one piece?

[Bosnian_hero]

Yeah, why? Its just some engineering stuff and any car can work like this. I work as an engine engineer (hobby), its no big deal using alcohol in cars, but its a big deal how to use a proper compression. My merc runs great, but it gets overheated after 2 hours of running (even at very low rpm). Try mixing butanol and ethanol in a 9:1 ratio (90% butanol and 10% ethanol), you get a 110-120 octane fuel. That octane rating is enough for any compression ratio, even for those that is used in cars like the Veyron, CCR and other >900HP engines. The bad thing is that it changes the torque curve dramaticly, while on low-rpm you get almost no power, but on higher-rpm you get much more power than normal cars, which causes overheat in less than 25mins. Of course, my point is racing cars, which don't need to run more than a few minutes, but for a normal commercial vehicle, you can use lower compression and add 250-300 grams of petroleum, natural gas or any other fossil-fuel (just make sure you mix it with your alcohol-fuel, otherwise its useless). This can be used on streets and you get more milleage, less pollution, same power (energy) and you won't overheat your engine. I found out that long-stroke engines, react better to alcohol-fuels, thats why the engine overheats quickly (the pistons travel more inside the cylinder, producing more kinetic energy and with more energy being extracted from hi-comp. alcohol, you get a real mess inside).