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To: neverdem

I would look really hard at the combustion byproducts of methanol. One of the reasons methanol continues to not really catch on is because there are some really nasty issues with it. Uncombusted methanol getting into the water table can eventually cause blindness, and one of the byproducts is large quantities of aldehydes. Like formaldehyde. Which does all sorts of wonderful things to live humans.


2 posted on 08/01/2011 2:27:40 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr
Uncombusted methanol getting into the water table can eventually cause blindness, and one of the byproducts is large quantities of aldehydes. Like formaldehyde.

You have to drink large amounts of methanol to become blind, IMHO. How if the formation of acetaldehyde from ethanol so different from methanol besides the formaldehyde?

12 posted on 08/01/2011 2:39:22 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: Spktyr

There are no combustion byproducts of methanol, because it is one of the simplest molecules possible. Combustion, by definition, is the addition of oxygen. Methanol consists of only two non-proton atoms, carbon and oxygen. Since it has one oxygen already, the only way it can gain an oxygen is to become CO2. When this happens, there are no electrons left over to react with anything*.

When you have long chains of carbons, you can create wierd chemicals by forming multiple bonds between carbons (”unsaturation”), forming weird substitutions and chemical side groups, etc. That’s why burning complex oils can create “byproducts.”

(* Technically, it is possible for the CO2, in turn, to react with something. But CO2 is a very stable chemical. Also, other reactions besides combustion are possible.)


33 posted on 08/01/2011 3:57:22 PM PDT by dangus
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