MANSON — Last week, Tim Bombaci demonstrated how he makes ethanol from apples at his home outside of Manson.

The Wenatchee World and a few friends and supporters came by for the demonstration.

Here’s how it works.

Bombaci gets a free bin of apple culls from Manson Growers. He described them as “really yucky.” They’re basically bruised or have insects, and can’t be used to make juice.

He shovels the culls into a five-gallon plastic bucket, then dumps them into his wood chipper, which mashes the apples into a mushy soup.

He pours this into his washing machine, and sets it on the spin cycle. No hoses are hooked into the machine to add water, but the juice comes out the drain hose, and the now-dryer leftovers stay in the machine. The remains are acidic and will be a good addition to his soil. He composts them for later use in his garden.

He strains the juice that came from the drain hose, and adds yeast to help it ferment.

After about two weeks, he puts the foamy juice in a large insulated container at the base of his distiller. Using a coil from a hot water heater, he heats the liquid to a temperature that’s below the boiling point of water, but slightly above the boiling point of alcohol. The alcohol steam gathers at the top of the distiller, condenses and flows down a tube to another container. Because his process was not sterile, the alcohol contains methanol, which would make someone extremely sick if they drank it, he warned. It takes about a week to distill the liquid into alcohol.

Bombaci then uses a funnel to pour the ethanol into his truck, which now has a computer module that helps it run on anything from 100 percent gasoline to 100 percent ethanol. Many newer vehicles are designed to run on gasoline or a blend of up to 85 percent ethanol.

After pouring it in, the truck starts right up, and he takes it for a spin. The exhaust is clear, and has a mild smell.

Bombaci said his truck gets about the same gas mileage, and runs smoother on ethanol, but it doesn’t have quite as much power. He plans to have a mechanic check it periodically to see if the ethanol is causing any negative consequences.

In order to run a distillery, Bombaci does need a federal permit, but that was free, and easy to get, he said. It also required an inspection by the local fire department.

K.C. Mehaffey: 997-2512

mehaffey@wenatcheeworld.com