I need to run ethanol to my workshop. Cats?
 

So, I am currently hand-carrying ethanol to my workshop 70' from my basement. I'm literally just pouring the ethanol out into my hand, and trying not to spill it on the way. It sucks and I have lived with it for many years. I would like to run a pipeline out to my shop and I think it is probably around 150'. My bootlegging experience ended years ago, shortly after using mason jars went out of style. If you were doing a 150' run, underground, would you use PVC, PEX, silicone, reinforced, pre-made hoses, ??? I think I have a big spool of clear tubing somewhere (butyl?) and have heard there have been major advances in using that to get moonshine to distant buildings. I'm not sure it is 150' and adapters are probably $$$. I'd like to do this on the cheap. I need something that the cats will not gnaw on. Suggestions??? @Godless Commie?

Oh, forgot to say that probably 10' of the install will be running in close proximity to future 110V AC and mini-split AC control wires.

If it were me I would want to try and avoid the run near power. Therefore I would suggest setting up a laminar flow "jumping jet" fountain, one base on the roof of each building. Low impact install, avoids the power hazard, and something nice to look at. :2cents:

I would add copper dust in the ethanol.
That way, if you were ever to ignite the said ethanol by, say, an unfortunate short in the power lines you are bunching together with your diy plumbing, you will at least enjoy a Christmasy bonfire.

Supposedly it's possible to catalyze the production of ethanol using electricity and an platinum/iridium/gold-nanoparticle catalyst. (Ethanol Producer Magazine ? The Latest News and Data About Ethanol Production)

So my recommendation is that you install a generator in the basement, burn the ethanol to create electricity, use that to run a power-over-ethernet switch hooked up the cat5e cable going to your workshop. Then in the workshop you install one of the above catalytic systems and recreate the ethanol.

--Ian

I vote pump hooked to a nozzle for smooth laminar flow and a funnel into a drum.

How far can laminar flow go? Maybe multiple stages? 50' each?

Perpetual motion machine!

Might I suggest a simpler solution? Perhaps just buy your ethanol pre-packaged in handy, easy-to-carry 750ml bottles. Depending on your intended end use, certain diluted and flavored types might even be suitable for multiple, non-work applications.

Perhaps one could consume all the ethanol, run up stairs and then extract it from the bloodstream via dialysis before you reach toxic levels?

In fact, home dialysis is actually more accessible and affordable than at any point in history! In fact, here's a machine you can purchase right now and have delivered to your home:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...20573f48df.jpg

The seller is even kind enough to take offers on this miracle of modern science: https://www.ebay.com/p/1949287622/

I know what you are saying... can hemodialysis be used for the extraction of alcohol? Well friend, it CAN be used for this purpose and its up to 40x more efficient that "traditional" methods! Provided your cats are not regularly consuming sufficient quantities of your blood, this process should be more than feline friendly.

Of course such a dramatic claim requires dramatic evidence, and if you are so inclined to believe in SCIENCE! then I have provided a source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7131613/

Is the shop downhill? Just dig a ditch and pour it.

Too much packet loss that way.

Did you ever see the season of trailer park Boys where they used model trains to literally make an underground railroad to smuggle weed across the border?

No.

You can just stop that question before the word "where," and the answer is still no.

But, serious question from someone who has never* smuggled drugs across an international border: Given the relatively low density of marijuana (value per unit of area), relative to the throughput of a typical model railroad, how can this possibly be profitable?

I mean, if you'd said they were smuggling crack or LSD this way, I'd understand. That seems plausible. But weed?


* = I was once an accessory to bringing Cuban cigars into the US from Canada, hidden within the fat-folds of a native-Alaskan former alligator wrestler.

Probably depends on scale. They have 1/4 scale "model RRs" at the SF Zoo that kids can ride in.

--Ian

I assume you have never seen the trailer park boys. Your idea of profitability is based on someone having a self worth measured in dollars, and not in how many blunts you smoke in an hour. That is where the math is failing. No rational person would seriously import any large amount of weed from Canada to the US. But in an episode of a fictional TV show where the main characters are about as bright as a burnt out light bulb. It all makes sense to them and is worth it.

In real life I don't even think the cartels smuggle brick week into the US from Mexico much any more. Since it has become legal to grow in several states it is much easier for people to grow it on the US side and just use USPS for delivery.

That is a reasonable assumption.

Another reasonable assumption would have been that I'd never even heard of the Trailer Park Boys until this thread.

Yes, I work in TV. No, I don't really have any idea what's on TV.