Seasonal Idea - biofuel

Alcohol Fuel

At this time of year vast quantities of alcohol are being consumed.

It occurred to me, why not use alcohol as a bio-fuel?

Instead of using things like corn oil, rape seed oil, and so forth -

What about using alcohol - directly as a fuel?

Small scale steam engines - as used in scale sized railway engines - use alcohol to heat the water - so could this not be scaled up to power steam engines for practical uses?

Steam powered trains, ships, even (perish the thought) cars, lorries, and what about power stations (after all nuclear ones are steam engines - if you think about it).

Would it be viable and ecologically sound?

Well the alcohol to be used would of course be mostly water - which is obviously plentiful and cheap - sugar (glucose) is required as is yeast - and then a system of distillation to raise the alcohol content to make it useable.

Could it be done cheaply enough?

I haven`t got the foggiest idea - question is has anyone?

If it was financially viable (compared to alternatives) then it would be a cleaner form of fuel - compared to fossil fuels and nuclear - and it might well be far more efficient than bio-oil and use far less land for equivalent energy produced (leaving the land for food and life - wildlife and farmed animals).

Maybe some major flaw in this idea - but then again has Alcohol simply been overlooked?

And as an afterthought - might alcohol be burnt directly in Internal Combustion Engines or even used as the "fuel" for Fuel Cells?

As a "peoples fuel" - might it even be possible to produce small scal systems so villages/communities, even individuals, could produce their own Fuel Alcohol?

Anyway just a thought - seasonally inspired!