# How would post-apocalyptic survivors get gasoline?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 14, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173 "2013-10-14T01:57:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/21 "2013-10-14T12:27:48Z")
> [@Superhal](#):
>
> Missed window: i was asking about running machinery that usually uses gasoline.
Replace it with horses. Steal Jay Leno’s hoard of steam powered cars. Run them on [Wood gas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas)
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### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/22 "2013-10-14T12:31:29Z")
> [@Superhal](#):
>
> Imho scavenging really depends on how many survivors are left. I used to work at a gas station, and they could store maybe 1k gallons in an underground tank. Maybe 10k, maybe 100k, but depending on how many surivors there are, eventually a given area would run out. Im asking about when all the old stores are gone.
You could generate hydrogen through electrolysis, if you can scavenge some way to make electricity.
Probably best to go gather solar panels while you still have gasoline to burn.
And ethanol is pretty straightforward to produce if you have sugar of some sort.
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/23 "2013-10-14T12:44:01Z")
> [@naita](#):
>
> Replace it with horses. Steal Jay Leno’s hoard of steam powered cars. Run them on [Wood gas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas)
Run the “usually operated on gasonline” engine applications on wood gas. Not the steam cars. In case that wasn’t obvious.
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### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/24 "2013-10-14T12:44:54Z")
What do you need gas for anyway? Where are you going to go?
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/25 "2013-10-14T12:46:44Z")
Wood-gas would most likely be the new gasoline.
Ethanol would seem to require some infrastructure that requires such a fuel to make it worth it to produce over wood-gas. Something like aviation. It may even require a economy with a means of exchange. Perhaps on the build back up, but I don’t see it much in the immediate P.A. world.
And I would suspect diesel engines would be the preferred type, some multifuel diesels can run on rendered animal fat or on motor oil.
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### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/26 "2013-10-14T12:49:32Z")
Ethanol requires sugar or starch, fire, and a still.
If I’ve got a working gasoline-powered vehicle, I can build a still and go scavenge sugar at stores.
Agreed diesel is a better choice right away though.
If we’re building a new world after an apocalypse, let’s think big and get away from personal fuelburning transport.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/27 "2013-10-14T13:01:12Z")
This is why I’d open **Kayaker’s Post-Apocalyptic Gas and Burgers.**
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-post-apocalyptic-survivors-get-gasoline/671173/28 "2013-10-14T20:07:19Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#):
>
> I knew what the movie was before I even clicked it.
>
> Of course,\*\* the hero used a methane powered motorbike, made from chicken-shit. \*\*As a chemistry-aware adult, I am no longer sure how he got from methane (anaerobic decay of fecal matter) to methanol (poured into the tank of his trailbike) without a [serious chemical reactor system](http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Methane_to_methanol).
… oh. The methane, not the bike.
Carry on.
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