Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Fuel grade Methanol?

declined - 21-4-2013 at 23:15

Does anyone here use fuel grade MeOH or Nitromethane?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Gallon-Bucket-of-Methanol-For-Prod...

chemcam - 22-4-2013 at 10:19

I am sure methanol is one of those things you would want to buy locally since it is very easy to get. Shipping would be outragious because it is a fuel (hazmat) and 5 gallons is very heavy.

Fantasma4500 - 22-4-2013 at 11:12

i would say get it locally, but you could try distilling off acetone from vinegar + CaCO3 (160*C) if you wanna try to make your own..
or drydestilling wood
tho the CaCO3 you get from calcium acetate can be re-reacted with vinegar to again yield calcium acetate
in other words how to make vinegar into very flammable liquid (:
some countries are insanely and outrageously restrictive with methanol tho.. its insane.. hope you dont live a such place

hafnium - 22-4-2013 at 11:39

Yeah I agree with chemcam and Antiswat, this is something that you can easily find in any mid-sized city. They use meoh as racing fuel and the like, so look around locally for stores that might cater to that.

This might get you started: http://torcoracefuel.net/dealers.html

Morgan - 22-4-2013 at 12:59

I bought 7 gallons about a week ago. It was from a performance shop in town. I asked what other uses people buy it for other than racing, he said biodiesel and cleaning fluids for tools or something. It was around $4.50 a gallon.

[Edited on 22-4-2013 by Morgan]

declined - 22-4-2013 at 16:54

Thanks guys. The facility is a couple minutes from my place. Question was, is "fuel grade" acceptable for lab use?

Morgan - 22-4-2013 at 18:07

I came across this tidbit.
http://books.google.com/books?id=rPBhvch_zG0C&pg=PA111&a...

chemcam - 22-4-2013 at 20:14

Quote: Originally posted by declined  
Thanks guys. The facility is a couple minutes from my place. Question was, is "fuel grade" acceptable for lab use?


All your original question asked was if any of us used methanol and posted a link to buy. But anyway, Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It really depends what exactly you will be using it for. You could distill it but I'm sure there will still be some additives in it with too close of a BP to remove unless fractional setup is used.

declined - 23-4-2013 at 20:58

I asked for a COA on the "fuel grade" MeOH, which costs $38/5-gallons and I got 99.99%. I would say this is good to go?

http://www.dudadiesel.com/msds/methanolCOA.pdf

hafnium - 23-4-2013 at 22:17

Quote: Originally posted by declined  
I asked for a COA on the "fuel grade" MeOH, which costs $38/5-gallons and I got 99.99%. I would say this is good to go?

http://www.dudadiesel.com/msds/methanolCOA.pdf


You should probably tell us what you're using it for if you want an actual answer. But yes, if it's 99,9% methanol, you'll be fine.