Strange facts? about Methanol.

[Julian]

I came across this description of Methanol today ...

==============================
A colorless, flammable liquid with an odor repulsive pungent. Shipped and stored in dissolved acetone. Can decompose spontaneously if pressure exceeds 15 PSIG.
==============================

from http://www.c-f-c.com/specgas_products/methanol.htm.  It's a rather amateurish looking website, but they must have got the info from somewhere.  Anyone heard this before?

[julesandtash]

That sounds like the description of Acetylene to me with the exception of the liquid bit.

The following is a lift from Wikipedia about Actylene....
Consequently, acetylene can explode with extreme violence if the absolute pressure of the gas exceeds about 200 kPa (29 psi). Most regulators and pressure gauges on equipment report gauge pressure and the safe limit for acetylene therefore is 101 kPagage or 15 psig.[19][20] It is therefore shipped and stored dissolved in acetone or dimethylformamide (DMF),[21] contained in a metal cylinder with a porous filling (Agamassan), which renders it safe to transport and use, given proper handling.

The site you linked to also goes on to say about Methanol... Methanol is also a high-octane, clean-burning fuel that is a potentially important substitute for gasoline in automotive vehicles.

How can Methanol be high Octane?  It is a very simple molecule CH3OH whereas Octane is far more complex and much heavier CH3(CH2)6CH3 - simplified as C8H18

Methanol is an alcohol and Octane is a hydrocarbon.

[photoman290]

sounds very strange. i think someone missed a page when they where writing the web page. they seem to be a gas supplier so it sounds like acetylene to me. never heard of methanol being supplied in gas bottles before.

[Glycer-rides]

Methanol does have a high 'octane number', in fact more so than octane. Alcohols are still hydrocarbons.

Sounds dodgy, 15 psig =1 bar, so eductors should cause methanol to decompose spontaneously, then. And squirrels!

[Julian]

sounds very strange. i think someone missed a page when they where writing the web page. they seem to be a gas supplier so it sounds like acetylene to me. never heard of methanol being supplied in gas bottles before.

Now you mention Acetylene, I've vague recollections of someone once telling me that was stored dissolved in something.


Perhaps it's one of those sites which is best ignored!

[greasemonkey]

Yeah, the OP sounds like Acetylene to me. I thought there was like acetone sheets, or a matrix in the bottle. The a,c,e of acetylene means it is ??tylene gas dissolved in Acetone. Thats what I got taught in college, but then that does not mean it bears any relation to fact............

Of course. that should be acetate, not acetone. Thicko.