wet methanol
02-22-2007 | 05:25 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 26
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: adelaide, AUSTRALIA
wet methanol
I was given some quantity of methanol by a friend going out of the hobby.
A couple of the fuel cans had loose lids.
I mixed a small batch and I have trouble getting a reliable run.
I guess the methanol has gone stale or absorbed some water.
What can be done to salvage the 10 litres of methanol?
A couple of the fuel cans had loose lids.
I mixed a small batch and I have trouble getting a reliable run.
I guess the methanol has gone stale or absorbed some water.
What can be done to salvage the 10 litres of methanol?
02-22-2007 | 06:28 AM
#2
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,275
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: Warialda NSW, AUSTRALIA
RE: wet methanol
G'day Mate,
Absolutely nothing, use it to clean up epoxy, or mix it, 1/2 cup, 2 squirts of dishwashing liquid & the rest water, to clean your plane.
It is useful, just not for fuel.
Absolutely nothing, use it to clean up epoxy, or mix it, 1/2 cup, 2 squirts of dishwashing liquid & the rest water, to clean your plane.
It is useful, just not for fuel.
02-22-2007 | 07:51 PM
#3
My Feedback: (29)
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 213
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: palm coast,
FL
RE: wet methanol
One method I read about is to set it out in the sun & the heat will form condensation. You then can wipe it up with paper towels. Just make sure you dont shake the can.
02-25-2007 | 09:03 PM
#5
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 6,059
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: Sterling , CO
RE: wet methanol
There is a forum here where they tell you how to mix your own fuel and what is called ingniters that changes the flash point of fuel
Like acetone and nitro
RC Fuels
Like acetone and nitroRC Fuels
02-25-2007 | 09:22 PM
#6
Senior Member
My Feedback: (3)
RE: wet methanol
Put some of it in the freezer, let ice form at the top, then skim it off. Methanol can contain up to 10% water and still burn in model engines just fine. It might even burn better in an overcompressed engine with additional water [to counteract detonation]. For the most part, fuel going "bad" is BS. Some nitro can evaporate, some water can collect, but most of the bad fuel claims are bogus, just like frequency hits are blamed for many crashes. I've used fuel that was left over in a vented model plane tank from a year before with no problems. It's easy to blame the fuel and it's easy to blame those stray radio waves, too. I mix my own with ingredients that I've had in drums for over 5 years, just use nitro, methanol and Klotz, don't need no steenking igniters.
02-26-2007 | 01:36 AM
#7
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,275
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: Warialda NSW, AUSTRALIA
RE: wet methanol
G'day Mate,
Have you tried that method?
Putting it in the freezer, will NOT separate the water from the methanol.
It is not like oil, or other substances, that don't mix with water, with water & methanol there is no layer, to separate, so freezing won't help.
You will just end up with a contaminated methanol icy sludge.
Have you tried that method?
Putting it in the freezer, will NOT separate the water from the methanol.
It is not like oil, or other substances, that don't mix with water, with water & methanol there is no layer, to separate, so freezing won't help.
You will just end up with a contaminated methanol icy sludge.
05-16-2007 | 09:25 AM
#10
Senior Member
RE: wet methanol
Within the past year one of the model magazines (I think Model Airplane News but not sure) had an article where they deliberately added water to fuel in small percentages at a time and found that even with more than 5% water, the engines run fine. Also, many years back--about 30--a fellow modeler did the same test with the same results, in fact with a small amount of water, the RPM went up. In all my years of flying, now well into the 50th, I have never found moisture in the fuel to be a problem.
05-16-2007 | 08:49 PM
#11
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 521
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like
on
1 Post
From: Port MacquarieNew South Wales, AUSTRALIA
RE: wet methanol
Hi Rodney,
Looks like we have been building models for about the same time, isn't it great getting old when you go to more funerals than weddings?[&o]. Whilst like you I have never had the problem, (I always mix up small batches of fuel, leave virtually no air gap in the containers, don't mix on days of high humidity and store in well sealed containers in a stell cupboard), some of my flying mates have and in my experience the problem is insoluble until you buy or mix up a new batch of fuel. We live in an area of very high humidity most of the year. Although if FL means Florida? I assume the climate is similar for you.
Universe avenger already says that the fuel is a problem {"I mixed a small batch and I have trouble getting a reliable run."}
I agree that a small % of moisture is probably not able to be noticed performance wise. However once over the critical percentage you don't have a reliable run anymore, but great weed killer
Cheers,
Colin
Looks like we have been building models for about the same time, isn't it great getting old when you go to more funerals than weddings?[&o]. Whilst like you I have never had the problem, (I always mix up small batches of fuel, leave virtually no air gap in the containers, don't mix on days of high humidity and store in well sealed containers in a stell cupboard), some of my flying mates have and in my experience the problem is insoluble until you buy or mix up a new batch of fuel. We live in an area of very high humidity most of the year. Although if FL means Florida? I assume the climate is similar for you.
Universe avenger already says that the fuel is a problem {"I mixed a small batch and I have trouble getting a reliable run."}
I agree that a small % of moisture is probably not able to be noticed performance wise. However once over the critical percentage you don't have a reliable run anymore, but great weed killer
Cheers,
Colin
05-17-2007 | 06:30 AM
#12
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 962
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
RE: wet methanol
ORIGINAL: universe.avenger
I was given some quantity of methanol by a friend going out of the hobby.
A couple of the fuel cans had loose lids.
I mixed a small batch and I have trouble getting a reliable run.
I guess the methanol has gone stale or absorbed some water.
What can be done to salvage the 10 litres of methanol?
I was given some quantity of methanol by a friend going out of the hobby.
A couple of the fuel cans had loose lids.
I mixed a small batch and I have trouble getting a reliable run.
I guess the methanol has gone stale or absorbed some water.
What can be done to salvage the 10 litres of methanol?
05-17-2007 | 10:20 AM
#13
Senior Member
]
05-28-2007 | 01:21 PM
#15
RE: wet methanol
I have never tried what I am going to tell you but some buddies at the field swear that it just works fine.
It consists in putting an excess of marine salt in granules into the contaminated methanol. Sodium chloride is very hygroscopic and litterally sucks the water molecules off the mixture, whereas salt is not soluble in methanol.
Let it sit for some time in a cool place (a fridge would be fine but the danger that someone can accidentally drink methanol is too high), let's say one day, after that you just pour the methanol off the jug paying attention not to shake it and leave all the salt in the bottom.
Then you should have dehydrated methanol on one side and hydrated sodium chloride granules on the other.
To make sure that methanol has not dissolved sodium choride (this can actually happen in a very hot environment), all you have to do is pouring some methanol on a perfectly cleaned piece of glass (so called watch glass), let it evaporate completely and check with a lens whether it has left some salt residue. If the methanol evaporates leaving no trace of salt or whatsoever it means that it is ok.
Then you can add to it as much water as you wish to your pure methanol, as the other fellows have just recommended to you in this forum [sm=tongue_smile.gif]
It consists in putting an excess of marine salt in granules into the contaminated methanol. Sodium chloride is very hygroscopic and litterally sucks the water molecules off the mixture, whereas salt is not soluble in methanol.
Let it sit for some time in a cool place (a fridge would be fine but the danger that someone can accidentally drink methanol is too high), let's say one day, after that you just pour the methanol off the jug paying attention not to shake it and leave all the salt in the bottom.
Then you should have dehydrated methanol on one side and hydrated sodium chloride granules on the other.
To make sure that methanol has not dissolved sodium choride (this can actually happen in a very hot environment), all you have to do is pouring some methanol on a perfectly cleaned piece of glass (so called watch glass), let it evaporate completely and check with a lens whether it has left some salt residue. If the methanol evaporates leaving no trace of salt or whatsoever it means that it is ok.
Then you can add to it as much water as you wish to your pure methanol, as the other fellows have just recommended to you in this forum [sm=tongue_smile.gif]
06-17-2007 | 03:45 PM
#16
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 361
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: Incirlik, TURKEY
RE: wet methanol
ORIGINAL: PiccoLino
I have never tried what I am going to tell you but some buddies at the field swear that it just works fine.
It consists in putting an excess of marine salt in granules into the contaminated methanol. Sodium chloride is very hygroscopic and litterally sucks the water molecules off the mixture, whereas salt is not soluble in methanol.
Let it sit for some time in a cool place (a fridge would be fine but the danger that someone can accidentally drink methanol is too high), let's say one day, after that you just pour the methanol off the jug paying attention not to shake it and leave all the salt in the bottom.
Then you should have dehydrated methanol on one side and hydrated sodium chloride granules on the other.
To make sure that methanol has not dissolved sodium choride (this can actually happen in a very hot environment), all you have to do is pouring some methanol on a perfectly cleaned piece of glass (so called watch glass), let it evaporate completely and check with a lens whether it has left some salt residue. If the methanol evaporates leaving no trace of salt or whatsoever it means that it is ok.
Then you can add to it as much water as you wish to your pure methanol, as the other fellows have just recommended to you in this forum [sm=tongue_smile.gif]
I have never tried what I am going to tell you but some buddies at the field swear that it just works fine.
It consists in putting an excess of marine salt in granules into the contaminated methanol. Sodium chloride is very hygroscopic and litterally sucks the water molecules off the mixture, whereas salt is not soluble in methanol.
Let it sit for some time in a cool place (a fridge would be fine but the danger that someone can accidentally drink methanol is too high), let's say one day, after that you just pour the methanol off the jug paying attention not to shake it and leave all the salt in the bottom.
Then you should have dehydrated methanol on one side and hydrated sodium chloride granules on the other.
To make sure that methanol has not dissolved sodium choride (this can actually happen in a very hot environment), all you have to do is pouring some methanol on a perfectly cleaned piece of glass (so called watch glass), let it evaporate completely and check with a lens whether it has left some salt residue. If the methanol evaporates leaving no trace of salt or whatsoever it means that it is ok.
Then you can add to it as much water as you wish to your pure methanol, as the other fellows have just recommended to you in this forum [sm=tongue_smile.gif]
06-17-2007 | 04:08 PM
#17
Senior Member
RE: wet methanol
This is more or less what organic chemists call "salting out". Basic idea is that you can separate organic compounds from water by adding a salt which dissolves in the water better than the organic compund. More or less crowds the organic compound out of the water.
06-17-2007 | 04:18 PM
#18
Senior Member
RE: wet methanol
Lets say you have 10% water in your methanol. You have to take it down to -230 F to make the mixture freeze. The bit about putting your fuel in the freezer to get water out is not true on this earth. I imagine you can get oil to come out in the freezer, and then ruin a few engines with low oil content fuel.
http://www.nugentec.com/FAQ/Freezing...h%20Points.htm
http://www.nugentec.com/FAQ/Freezing...h%20Points.htm
06-19-2007 | 05:42 PM
#19
Senior Member
My Feedback: (1)
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 2,761
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From: saginaw,
MI
RE: wet methanol
take it to the local chem lab they can do a fractional distillation using a packing column. gives more surface area to distill. See THE bp OF MEOH AND HOH ARE DIFFERENT .YOU CAN CLEAN THis up at a lab. im a chemist. simple distillation withg a water jacket on the condensor using a claisen head would work too
