i havent heard of useing silica gel to clean up the methanol but you can distill both easy for methanol all you need is a simple pot still. dosent need to be food grade cause you dont want to drink it . methanol is the root of all the myths that moonshine will make you go blind. methanol is easly made useing puliverized wood (newspaper works good.) sugar water and yeast. ethanol on the other hand is a grain alcahol. it is normally made useing corn but wheat works too. just need that natural sugars and starches of grain. potatoes will work too justs takes longer to ferment. corn makes a whiskey potatoes makes vodka dont ask me how i know [:-] now it is chemically impossible to produce a 200 proof (100%) alcohol. and dont try to distill it from e85 to drink it will still contain trace amounts of petrolium distilates the ones that vaporize at the same temp as ethanol. (about 73 degrees C.) ive played with converting my old bug to ethanol ill try it on a glow and see what i can come up with because ethanol cost just under a dollar to produce a gallon. not counting the cost to fuel the fire. but its not that hard if you do the research and practice. ethanol requires a more complicated distillation process to produce the higher proof. but it is still an easy recipe. sugar starch (grain) water yeast. want to know more message me.

chemistry was my best subject.

and you can seperate methanol from water with the magic of distillation. use wiper fluid dont have to wait for fermentation. but fermenting at home is still cheaper. 2.00 a gal or 60 cents a gal which do you choose.