How to separate ethanol from gas? | Emergency Preparedness | Forums

Alright you homesteading chemists, thoughts on this method I came across

Buy: 1000ml Separatory funnel

1lbs Anhydrous Magnesium Sulphate

2x 5 gallon gas canisters

Sta-bil

Fill 1 gas canister with 4 gallons gasoline

Pour in ~1 gallon of water

Shake, sit~30 mins, shake, sit ~30 mins, shake

Pour into glass separatory funnel (1 liter at a time)

wait.

Gas will separate into water, and gasoline (distinct layers), and the ethanol will have combined with the water (like dissolves like, basic chemistry)

The water will be the bottom layer, turn the stop-cock until the water has drained off.

Drain the rest into canister #2

Do this until contents of canister #1 are empty.

Add ~1/4 Cup Anhydrous magnesium sulphate per gallon of cleansed gasoline (if you decide to ramp this up to a larger scale) (Anhydrous magnesium sulphate is hygroscopic, so its super-absorbent of water)

Proceed to shake the gasoline vigorously

Wait

Place a filter on canister #1 (steel mesh w/coffee filter works best)

Filter our contents, and be left with clean and clear gasoline, with zero ethanol, and no water content.

Add sta-bil (for storage longer than 6 months)

Enjoy having a 2-3x longer shelf life, and vastly superior fuel economy.