Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Buying methanol

Sulaiman - 3-6-2015 at 12:51

I want to buy methanol for;

. spirit lamp .. cleaner than ethanol
(I have electrical heaters for distillation etc. but for small test tube experiments I don't have gas or a bunsen burner in my lab/shed)
. polar solvent for my chromatography columns (not used yet)
. general purpose solvent
. precursor for general syntheses
etc.

I can buy 1 litre for £7 which would probably last quite a while,
or for £46 I can buy 60 litres .... both advertised as 99.95% purity.
I think that I understand the fire risk in general but I've never seen,
and do not want to see, the effect of 60 litres on fire !

Is 3x 20 litres of methanol a stupidly large quantity to keep in my lab/shed ?

P.S. if I do buy 60 litres and find that it is several lifetimes worth,
would it be useful added to petrol or diesel fuel for automotive use?

[Edited on 3-6-2015 by Sulaiman]

beerwiz - 3-6-2015 at 12:58

Buy the 60 liters if you have the storage space for it.

szuko03 - 3-6-2015 at 13:15

I would basically look at it this way, please keep large amounts of ethanol on hand, places like bars even some houses have several gallons of ethanol and it isnt much different from methanol in storage and safety. If public places like bars and pub can hold gallons of ethanol you can too!

Better safe then sorry sure but if you have the space for it you can do it with little issues. Just uhh dont smoke around the 60 liters containers or something silly and you will be fine!

[Edited on 3-6-2015 by szuko03]

Magpie - 3-6-2015 at 13:53

60 liters is a lot of fuel - similar to keeping 3 ea 5-gallon cans of gasoline around. It wouldn't be for me.

I've been doing hobby chemistry for ~12 years now and probably haven't consumed 1 liter of methanol. But I use propane gas when I need a bunsen burner.

Dr.Bob - 3-6-2015 at 16:45

You could throw a liter in every tank of gasoline if you needed. You would NOT want to add it to diesel fuel, unless you first react it with some triglycerides to make biodiesel. See the thread on that elsewhere.

You can likely find someone to share the methanol purchase. It is a very useful chemical.

morganbw - 4-6-2015 at 07:19

I am so pleased that I am able to by as much or as little as I need.
This is by country location, as bio fuel seems to open doors.

byko3y - 4-6-2015 at 12:19

Bought 3 liters, used 25 ml in 3 month. Buy stuff only when you know you will potentially use it, otherwise it will just occupy space.
Some people are obsessed by collecting things, and they never actually use them. For me it's a bad habbit. A lot of chemicals are sold much cheaper in large quantities, especially if they are cheap.
£7 is a pretty expensive methanol for me, I bought mine for £2.5. You can sell 40-50 L of it to someone else, they might also need few liters for a lower price.

binbin - 6-6-2015 at 04:12

Quote: Originally posted by szuko03  
I would basically look at it this way, please keep large amounts of ethanol on hand, places like bars even some houses have several gallons of ethanol and it isnt much different from methanol in storage and safety. If public places like bars and pub can hold gallons of ethanol you can too!

[Edited on 3-6-2015 by szuko03]


They are mostly keeping 3%-6% ethanol (beer) with a mixture of acetone, methanol, ethyl acetate, and some other higher alcohols in large kegs. Ethanol is not flammable at this concentration. You need to get ethanol above 30% or so, and still, it's a shitty fuel at this concentration too. Whiskey is 40% ethanol, maybe some mixtures are 50%.. at this concentration they are flamable, however they are kept in small bottles. They are not keeping 99.5% ethanol, which is extremely dangerous in large amounts. A spark can set that blazing very easily. A spark cannot set 40%-50% blazing.. as far as I've seen and tried before at parties.

You couldn't pay me enough to keep a jug of 20L of 99.5% methanol in my house. A few days ago, a few streets away, I just saw 3 houses go up in flames in a matter of 20 minutes. 7 firetrucks. Fire is scary shit.



[Edited on 6-6-2015 by binbin]

Sulaiman - 6-6-2015 at 08:40

I've decided to take the boring (safer) option and just get 1 litre.
I watched a couple of youtube videos of methanol fires ... invisible but terrifying.
Methanol is so volatile and has an autoignition temperature comparable to my soldering iron (on high) ... too risky for me.
Thanks to all for the advice.

szuko03 - 6-6-2015 at 10:06

We just have different views on solvents. Your right it is a fire hazard but I really only view fire hazards as "if you are safe and keep it in a safe and fire resistant place you will be fine" its not like storing something unstable that can detonate or spontaneously ignite then again I am not considering getting that much so you are right to be cautious. I was just trying to alleviate some of the fear in regards to flammability simply because we do deal with flammable solvents regularly and I feel that safe handling should be enough to avoid issues.

That doesnt mean I would store enough for the entire forum at my residence.

Sulaiman - 6-6-2015 at 11:37

My Lab/shed is so small, with little ventilation, and in winter I use a radiant electric heater
(bright orange ... well above autoignition temperature of methanol)
less than ideal storage I realise now.

THE END

SimpleChemist-238 - 10-6-2015 at 21:15

I buy methanol from the dollar store and if I need it to be very pure I distill it and dry it.

binbin - 10-6-2015 at 22:06

I think the best way to store it would be in a jerry can, no? I guess you'd have to check to see if jerry can's will be attacked by the alcohol at that percentage. I mean, if we store petrol in them, I'm sure methanol would be fine in terms of safety as long as the alcohol won't destroy it.