[Stoves] Retting... corn?

[William Carr]

On Jan 16, 2007, at 4:28 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott wrote:

> I wondered about saving that alcohol to burn too.  Ferment, draw off a
> gallon or two, dry what remains. That must have happened a couple  
> of times
> on the odd farm or two...
>
> You could dip the puck into the alcohol to light it!


I was puzzled as to why the mash dried so well without added heat.    
Until I realized that when alcohol evaporates, it can take water  
vapor with it.


Pour some 91% rubbing alcohol on your arm, (avoid sparks while doing  
so).   The alcohol will evaporate and dry out your skin in the process.

Acetone is even worse.   I used to do fiber-glassing and acetone is  
the only solvent you can clean up with.



If salvaging the alcohol can be done without suppressing the drying  
effect, great.

Otherwise we may have to choose between a dry cake that will burn,  
and salvaging the alcohol.


The next question is, what other materials can be fermented to create  
a binder, and the second is, what exactly is this glue that's holding  
the puck together?

The stuff must have nearly the tenacity of Elmer's glue.


I look forward to someone duplicating this.   For all I know, it's  
specific to this bacterial strain.  For example, the fill cap for our  
diesel fuel tank is opposite the wall that had the leak.

It would be strange and wonderful if the bacteria turned out to be  
from leaked diesel fuel.

It would be even MORE wonderful if we could do this with the bugs  
that make Butanol.    Of course, butanol is a LOT less evaporative  
than ethanol.

William Carr