Re: I had a couple of beers.

On 2007-08-20, Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Whiskers <catwheezel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Lachlan wrote:

[...]

I think the general rule of thumb is that if you an eat something,
fermenting it with yeast will give you ethanol C2H5OH. But don't take my
word for it! Ethanol is a poison, like all alcohols, but when diluted
sufficiently the effects can usually be survived <G>).

I know a chap who drank `pure industrial ethanol'. He threw up. Mind
you, he also tried drinking industrial meths once, just for the hell of
it. Threw up that time too. He's in the army if you want some sort of
explanation.

It takes training and dedication to get to that state of mind.

Methanol CH3OH comes from fermenting wood (hence 'wood alcohol' - you also
get charcoal, creosote, acetate, and other things) or from the oil
industry. It's poisonous, which is why we can buy 'meths' without paying
the same 'liquor tax' as on ethanol. (The blue colour of meths is a
special die, and the taste and smell are added too, to discourage people
from trying to drink it; some meths also contains other nasties such as
naptha - "Statutory Instrument 1987 No. 2009 The Methylated Spirits
Regulations 1987"
<http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1987/Uksi_19872009_en_5.htm>).

Back when I was at university, I shared a house with a pharmacy student.
After he'd been introduced to the regulations regarding selling meths in
Northern Ireland (at the time; dunno if it's changed), he concluded that
it was probably easier to buy a shotgun in N. Ireland than it was to buy
meths.

I wonder why that was?

(I've been researching 'alternative fuels' with particular regard to their
potential use for cooking etc in a motor caravan I might one day manage to
acquire; I don't like big heavy cylinders of liquified butane/propane and
their associated plumbing).

Methanol and ethanol are rather low energy density, unfortunately.

Which is a good thing, from a safety angle. Paraffin and such oils have
better 'hot cupppas per gallon or pound of fuel' ratios, but the smell and
fumes aren't so good in an enclosed space, and you need a wick or a
pre-heater of some sort to get them to ignite, which is a safety hazard as
well as something you need to be wide awake to use.

A Tilley lamp or similar, using paraffin, could be lit out of doors and
then brought inside, but you can't easily do that with a cooking stove -
particularly if you have it built in for stability. I have used a
wick-type paraffin stove for cooking indoors, and it does smell and it's
far too easy to get lots of smoke if you aren't concentrating and used to
the particular stove's quirks. Usable, but not ideal. Wick-type paraffin
lamps and stoves also spill liquid fuel rather too easily for use in a
caravan, I think - you'd have to empty them before driving anywhere. More
smell and potential mess.

Alcohol stoves designed for marine use have 'wick-filled' fuel tanks, like
pocket lighters that use petrol, so once filled it's difficult to spill
the fuel, and they are easy to ignite using a match, lighter, or electric
spark - and easy to extinguish, which a hot paraffin wick stove is not.
The fumes from a well-designed alcohol burner are fairly innocuous even if
you have to burn British-type meths, but I've read that the stuff sold in
France and elsewhere on the continent for use in cooking appliances, is
pretty much pure alcohol and much cleaner burning than meths - so a quick
trip across the chunnel would seem to be worth including in ones travel
plans if you have an alcohol stove on board.

Liquified butane or propane involve relatively high pressures, and
pipe-work and valves that leak, and explosive 'clouds' can form in odd
corners of a boat or vehicle with very unfortunate consequences. The
useful-sized cylinders are large and very heavy (so cost money to move
around), and not something you want to be anywhere near when they get a
knock. Which could be why some vehicle-ferries and tunnels ban them (so
I've heard), which could be a nuisance if you rely on one for cooking and
heating.

Thinking back, his
mum's pressure cooker would've made a better still, less re-filling.

Eh? How do you cobble a pressure cooker into a still? Erm. Oh, yeah,
I bet you could open up the pressure release hole at the top big enough
for a tube of some sort, yeah?

Better than used car parts, if you hope to drink the product!

I've read of a truck radiator being used to produce drinking water by
distillation - Second World War, somewhere in North Africa.

Sounds likely. I've heard of plastic sheeting being suspended
horizontally just above the ground with a weight in the middle to make it
form a slight cone-shape, so that dew and mist can collect in the hollow
formed or drip off the outside into a strategically-placed container;
that's a form of distillation too. I don't think they had suitable
sheeting in WWII - oilskin might have worked, but even the British army
probably wouldn't issue oilskins to troops in the Sahara.

But an
ordinary kettle would be simpler, I think. You don't really need to have
the still under pressure, so thin metal and glass are quite adequate.

I'm sure you can find instructions and even supplies for making 'moonshine'
on the web.

I'd want a good thermostat if nothing else.

I think I'll leave it to the pros.

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
.