E10 fuel and chainsaws?

[Haironyourchest]

How do the Brazilians manage with 100% ethanol fuel? I tried googling this and can't find anything.

[openspaceman]

6 hours ago, Haironyourchest said:

How do the Brazilians manage with 100% ethanol fuel? I tried googling this and can't find anything.

I don't know but JAP 500 speedway bikes would run on Methanol and Castrol R, lord knows where they got it from. The jets had to be 30% bigger to pass enough fuel because although higher octane it was only 70% of the energy content per gallon.

[Stubby]

1 hour ago, openspaceman said:

I don't know but JAP 500 speedway bikes would run on Methanol and Castrol R, lord knows where they got it from. The jets had to be 30% bigger to pass enough fuel because although higher octane it was only 70% of the energy content per gallon.

I remember the grass track boys doing the same . Methanol is not ethanol though ...

[Rough Hewn]

I remember the grass track boys doing the same . Methanol is not ethanol though ...

I’ve heard up to 10% ether has an interesting effect…[emoji848][emoji106]

[Stubby]

7 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

I’ve heard up to 10% ether has an interesting effect…

ether that or something else 😁

[openspaceman]

12 minutes ago, Rough Hewn said:

I’ve heard up to 10% ether has an interesting effect…

I suspect it would detonate fairly easily as it is a constituent of easy start, that hospital smell of old.

[Stubby]

Methanol is synthetically produced where as ethanol is produced by the fermentation of food crops . Ethanol is a weak acid where as methanol is stronger .  Ethanol has a blue flame whilst methnanol has a white flame .  Methanol should not be consumed !

[openspaceman]

56 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Methanol is synthetically produced where as ethanol is produced by the fermentation of food crops .

Methanol was known as wood alcohol and produced by the pyrolysis of hardwoods. There was a large industry producing many chemicals from beech in Germany before the synthesis of organic chemicals from coal and petroleum took over.

 

It is mostly made from methane (natural gas) now.

56 minutes ago, Stubby said:

 

Ethanol is a weak acid where as methanol is stronger .

I thought it had a pH of 7 which is neither acid nor base.

56 minutes ago, Stubby said:

 

 

  Ethanol has a blue flame whilst methnanol has a white flame .  Methanol should not be consumed !

Actually burning methanol or methylated spirit (70% ethanol l with methanol added plus a bitter chemical) is dangerous because the flame is nigh on invisible and burns you worse than petrol  and I'm not sure why.

[trigger_andy]

Methanol is synthetically produced where as ethanol is produced by the fermentation of food crops . Ethanol is a weak acid where as methanol is stronger .  Ethanol has a blue flame whilst methnanol has a white flame .  Methanol should not be consumed !

Methanol is one of the first alcohols to be produced when distilling crops as it has a lower boiling point than Ethanol. Which is why it’s a bit of an old wives tail that drinking moonshine will make you blind.

When I was distilling with a Reflux Still (I built a Boka) Ethanol burned with no visible flame. If you look at old F1 vids of re-fueling spills that have caught alight it looks like there is no visible flames at all.

[Haironyourchest]

A pal told me about the Invisible methanol flame... He was building factories in Saudi, and some of the lads built a still to make fuel for their dirt bikes (ironically, no spare petrol available at the compound, for some reason). They fermented dates, IIRC. First thing the guy knew about it was his leather jacket crisping up.