How would you remove water from methanol?

Question

i can get methanol for free actually i might be able to get paid to take it. 100 bucks a barrel but it has like 5% deionized h20 in it. i want to fuel a e85 car

Answer 1

First, methanol will not work in an e85 car.  The e stands for ethanol, a totally different alcohol.  Methanol will destroy your cars fuel system.  Stay away from it.

5% water, means it is 95% methanol.  This will burn fine, but again, it will destroy your cars fuel system.  You need a car designed to run on methanol.

Answer 2

When one of my close friends urinated in my fuel tank I was advised to add methylated spirits to the tank to mix in the water.  At the time leaded petrol was 60 cents a litre and the metho was $3.50 a litre so although the engine revs higher, it tended to shorten the lifespan of machine and operator.  Shady fuel stations water down their fuel up to 20%, it has been said.

Answer 3

In chem lab we use anhydrous magnesium sulfate to absorb water from solutions. It's a solid, so then you can filter it out. I don't know how much you would need for the amount of liquid you have, and it's probably pretty expensive (from a chemical supply company), but I thought I'd throw that out there.

Answer 4

Please, give me the source of the free methanol.  Why would they give it away??? Is it contaminated w/ organic chemicals that have to be considered hazardous waste??  Methanol sells in excess of 3 USD/gal.  

If you are getting paid to take it, it must be poisoned.  Therefore too dangerous to put into the environment.  

If by some chance your friend is a total idiot or a great benefactor, yo would best use it in the conversion oif waste veggie oil to biodiesel.  There will be plenty of buyers in our area, as shipping is very costly.  

What ever you do, don't get it on your skin or in your eyes.  95% pure will seriously harm you.

Answer 5

I would use something like a Zeolite or lime filter. You need to work out how much water the filter can absorb. Once the filter has done what it can, it can then be regenerated quite simply by heating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeolite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_pur...

Good luck