Methanol Prices?
04-28-2008, 07:56 AM
#3
Member
MASTER JOURNEYMAN
Join Date: May 2005
Location: ROCHESTER, NY
Posts: 39
I needed meth for my kids jr's, i paid $6.99 this past friday at the same place i have been buying it for the last 3 years. last october it was up to $4.20 a gallon from $2.35 in the beginning of the year. I'm glad i did not convert my race car to meth like i wanted to becouse at 40-45% more use to the cost now is rediculess.
04-28-2008, 12:04 PM
#4
Senior Member
MASTER BUILDER
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Concord, Va
Posts: 208
When I first switched to alky back around 1995 I bought four 60 gal. drums from Alan Gatt at Interstate Racing Fuels in Maryland for $365 shipped to my door!! Dayum! I guess those days are gone forever!
RE: Expense, had I known where this was going, that new 18* SBC I built last year would be 12.5 to 1 rather than 15.2 to 1 compression. I got to either run alky or C16 and it comes out to about the same money even with the 2.3 ratio for methanol. C16 is right at $10 a gallon and with Methanol around $4.50, go figure.
Last year I paid $135 a drum. This year that same supplier is $250. He's buying the stuff from a chemical company in Dayton, Va but he has to buy like 10 drums at a time. I had thought about trying to do a buy in but that number of drums would cost me over $2000 and I don't have that kind of money since I'm retired.
I got about 12 gallons of methanol left then I'll be switching over to the 5 gal. can of C16 I got here in the shop. After that I'll probably just park it for a while!
With diesel and alky over $4 a gal., race gas @$10 a gal, race entry fees @ $50 and payouts not increasing makes me wonder if I need to find another hobby!
RE: Expense, had I known where this was going, that new 18* SBC I built last year would be 12.5 to 1 rather than 15.2 to 1 compression. I got to either run alky or C16 and it comes out to about the same money even with the 2.3 ratio for methanol. C16 is right at $10 a gallon and with Methanol around $4.50, go figure.
Last year I paid $135 a drum. This year that same supplier is $250. He's buying the stuff from a chemical company in Dayton, Va but he has to buy like 10 drums at a time. I had thought about trying to do a buy in but that number of drums would cost me over $2000 and I don't have that kind of money since I'm retired.
I got about 12 gallons of methanol left then I'll be switching over to the 5 gal. can of C16 I got here in the shop. After that I'll probably just park it for a while!
With diesel and alky over $4 a gal., race gas @$10 a gal, race entry fees @ $50 and payouts not increasing makes me wonder if I need to find another hobby!
04-28-2008, 12:44 PM
#5
Senior Member
MASTER BUILDER
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Wisconsin cheesehead!!
Posts: 213
I am familiar with the distilation process of ethanol for fuel but how much different would it be to produce methanol? isnt that just wood alcohol? (instead of corn or vegies). would a person be able to use the same still and process to distill methanol as they do ethanol?
04-28-2008, 02:46 PM
#6
Senior Member
MASTER BUILDER
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Sarver, PA
Posts: 134
Methanol is often called wood alcohol because it was once produced chiefly as a byproduct of the destructive distillation of wood. It is now produced synthetically by a multi-step process: natural gas and steam are reformed in a furnace to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide; then, hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases react under pressure in the presence of a catalyst.
