by Roberrific

Created on: February 28, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

Remember the A-Team episode where B.A. (as played by Mr. T) poured a moonshiner's distillate into the team's signature black van after he had run the engine bone dry? Hannibal (George Peppard) was very relieved when the whiskey worked just fine and the motor started right away. Unfortunately that only happens in the movies (and on TV). Most commercial whiskeys are only about 100 proof and would make very poor fuel.

In case you were never told the definition of proof, 200 proof is 100% alcohol, 180 proof is 90% alcohol, etc. About the most anyone can un-comfortably drink is 100 to 120 proof. The strongest spirit I've ever seen for sale is 150 proof Jamaican rum. Could that be used as fuel? It would make a poor alternative, but yes.

Brandy might be 120 proof, or 60% alcohol, and could be used, but it would have to be a pretty warm day, or the engine already pretty hot from running previously on gasoline for it to work.

Make no mistake, ethanol is alcohol, but its 200 proof - absolute alcohol. Grain alcohol, according to the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is a clear, colorless liquid with a characteristic agreeable odor.

Ethanol has been used since prehistory as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages. Dried residue on nine thousand year-old pots found in China imply the use of alcoholic beverages among Neolithic peoples.

Ethanol once served as lamp fuel in pre-Civil War United States. Automotive history mentions that it was used to power Henry Ford's 1908 Model T's. What happened? As an energy source, ethanol couldn't compete with the low cost and availability of petroleum. By 1865 crude oil had been discovered in both the eastern and western United States but there was still no demand for it anywhere. In the 1870s, when Rockefeller entered the game, the oil refineries in Cleveland were only bottling the kerosene which was sold as a cheaper alternative to whale oil. They would dump their gasoline biproduct directly into the river.

GreenField Ethanol has valuable information on their site about how to convert automobiles to consume alcohol based fuels.

Every adult has no doubt tasted really strong whiskey, but unless its 200 proof, or absolute alcohol, I would not recommend using it as fuel.

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