Hi. I thought it might be useful to start a thread dedicated to how we cope with fumes, particularly from methanol. Graham sort of started this, but it was in the midst of another very worthwhile thread. I'm hoping others will post their own solutions here, to share the wealth of knowledge and experience.

Ideally, I'll be recovering more of my methanol soon via a still. For now, though, my concern was with coping with fumes in my processing area. The majority of the fumes come during transfer from the methanol tank into the methoxide mixer, then again when transfering from the processor into the magnesol wash tank. I installed a 2000CFM vent fan in the wall of the processing area. To that, I have attached an "elephant trunk" made of two collapsible laundry hampers I got for $8 from Harbor Fright. When I am transferring methanol and mixing methoxide, the trunk is collapsed back against the fan. There is enough circulation through the building that it keeps concentration of fumes down inside.

When I am heating and air drying the finished biodiesel, I put the end of the trunk over the open top standpipe barrel I to my Magnesol wash in. With the fan on, I start transferring from the processor to that barrel.

I'll attach some pictures in the following posts. This one shows the processing area, with the fan on the back wall above the open top barrels. From left to right are the Magnesol standpipe barrel, another open top barrel that I preheat and filter the WVO and also into which I filter the washed biodiesel, then at the right is the processor. Above all that you can see three filters, and above them is my storage tank.

186_8670.JPG (52 KB, 142 downloads) Trunk collapsed

Here you can see inside the Magnesol wash tank before adding product. The heater "tree" is 6 stovetop coils, wired 3/2 series/parallel and running on 220V. The thermostat control is on top, and the blue tube coming out of the top of the framework is the air tube that connects to an aquarium pump. Three bubble stones under the coils keep the oil circulating, and bubbles help pull methanol and water out of solution.

186_8671.JPG (57 KB, 148 downloads) Magnesol wash tank

And here you can see the Magnesol wash tank ready to have the fuel transferred in, with the elephant trunk lowered onto it. There are absolutely no fumes in the building in this configuration, even when the fan isn't running at full speed.

186_8672.JPG (55 KB, 133 downloads) Elephant trunk

reply from the low rent district:

i like this whole setup. the storage tank- thats for biodiesel right? not feedstock. seems like there are a lot of wires and non ul or code approved assemblies and such. all indors with a laundry hamper(?) vapor containment system. and it works great for keeping methanol fumes low or non-detectable right? great what works works. whats not illegal aint illegal.

but if you want some of the more sophisticated personalities to post here your gonna have to a) make sure everthing is grounded b)move your storage tank to a more suitable location ie. not above a methanol heating element contraption, nor apperently strapped to a 1/4 inch plywood wall with 2 x 2 structure (forgot the fact that anyone who can install a 125 gallon fuel tank over their heads could possibly have enough sense to know that it is fine where it is.) c) and instead of blowing the fumes outside you should pressurize them and inject into a biofilter or something new and ecotech.

good luck

quote:

Originally posted by China Sea Pirate:
reply from the low rent district:

i like this whole setup. the storage tank- thats for biodiesel right? not feedstock. seems like there are a lot of wires and non ul or code approved assemblies and such. all indors with a laundry hamper(?) vapor containment system. and it works great for keeping methanol fumes low or non-detectable right? great what works works. whats not illegal aint illegal.

but if you want some of the more sophisticated personalities to post here your gonna have to a) make sure everthing is grounded b)move your storage tank to a more suitable location ie. not above a methanol heating element contraption, nor apperently strapped to a 1/4 inch plywood wall with 2 x 2 structure (forgot the fact that anyone who can install a 125 gallon fuel tank over their heads could possibly have enough sense to know that it is fine where it is.) c) and instead of blowing the fumes outside you should pressurize them and inject into a biofilter or something new and ecotech.

good luck

Okay...I really don't care about "sophisticated personalities (or otherwise) posting here." Just trying to share my own solution. Couple of points of clarification:

As I mentioned, methanol recover is in the works. I certainly have no "methanol heating" below the biodiesel storage tank. This isn't indoors, unless you consider being inside a shed with one end permanently open "indoors." The storage tank is on a steel stand fabbed from 2x3 box iron, and anchored to the concrete floor of the shed. The walls of the shed are 2x4, with T-111 siding (if that matters).

The wiring for the heating elements is the only thing that isn't "to code," and I have no idea what a code like that would resemble. Everything else is grounded and professionally installed. There is one flourescent lamp with an extension cord on it.

As for the heater, I did my best to insulate it well electrically, and had to experiment some to find a wire with insulation that stands up to biodiesel. To my surprise, a cheap extension cord worked as well as teflon that I tried.

On top of setting up the processor outdoors, this is how I intend on dealing with methanol fumes.




Ethanol competes with methanol for the enzymes that the body uses to metabolize alcohols. It is the chemicals formed by the metabolism of methanol that do the real damage, versus the methanol itself. The products of ethanol metabolism are far less harmful.

BTW, 90 Shilling is a tasty ale. One of my favorites.

Hi Greiswig,
What kind of fan unit do you use? Where did you get it and how many $? I checked out FW Webb yesterday for a 250 cfm industrial exhaust fan and appropriate accessories and they wanted $955!
Forget that.
Andrew

quote:

Originally posted by fruitcakesa:
Hi Greiswig,
What kind of fan unit do you use? Where did you get it and how many $? I checked out FW Webb yesterday for a 250 cfm industrial exhaust fan and appropriate accessories and they wanted $955!
Forget that.
Andrew

Sorry...I got it off EBay used. It's an industrial sparkless ventilation fan. Keep your eyes peeled there, and you'll find something similar cheap. Actually, I think I remember seeing something for $100-200 from McMaster-Carr. Might try them.

An industrial blower is mounted on my dryer, blowing into it. Four inch aluminium (dryer) ducting exhausts the dryer into my two wash tanks. The wash tanks will be exhausted to the outdoors, when I move my setup inside.

The blower / ducting serves two purposes. First, it controls the spray from the dryer, sending the BD either to a wash tank, or back into the dryer. Second, the methanol fumes in the wash tanks are vented outside.

I mix catalyst with methanol outdoors in a 56 liter (15 US gal) HDPE drum. It has a ball-valve and disconnect permenamtly installed in the 3/4" bung hole. Methanol and catalyst are added through the 2" bung. This is sealed before bringing the drum to the reactor. At the reactor, the quick disconnect is connected to the eductor, and the eductor valve is opened prior to allowing air into to drum. This maintains a slight vacuum in the drum so that no fumes escape.

Images of the test version are up on my website under Equipment / Reactor / Version 1.5. The system is currently being re-built to better arrange the wash / dry tanks and associated plumbing.

Cost for wash / dry tank fume and spray control is about $60.00 including taxes.