[rellimpank]

—as I have bored posters with in the past, as I spend some time in corn country during both the planting and the harvesting of corn, I have awaited in vain for any evidence that growers of corn are converting from diesel to ethanol in any of the pertinent equipment-—

[El Gato]

Conversion from diesel to ethanol is not practical. Different types of engines. Although alcohol would probably work better than gasoline would. :)

Conversion of an Otto cycle (4 stroke), like a gasoline engine, to alcohol, is somewhat more practical, just a matter of timing mostly.

Now, you could convert a Diesel cycle, or Diesel, to burn soy bean oil, or other vegetable oil. Not much conversion required, maybe some extra filtering and possibly a fuel pump change in some brands of engine. I don't know if the farmers do any of that or not. The difference is that the veggie Diesel fuel is energy wise equivalent to the petro Diesel fuel, while alcohol doesn't have near the energy content of pure gasoline.

I know a couple of people who have burned veggie Diesel, and not commerical Bio-Diesel either, in their trucks. One guy had fuel pump issues, in a Dodge truck IIRC.