[error]DISCLAIMER: The following is highly dangerous or illegal and it is not recommended to be used under any circumstances, except zombies.[/error]
Methanol, or methyl alcohol, can be used primarily as a fuel source or feedstock (a chemical used to make another chemical). For our purposes, we can either use it to fuel cars, trucks generators, etc. or to create biodiesel (both very useful in a post-Apocalyptic world). In this part of our series on alcohol distillation, we discuss how to use your still to produce methanol.
Methanol is more commonly referred to as wood alcohol because, until breakthroughs in modern chemistry, the only way to produce it was by extracting it from wood. You shouldn’t drink methanol EVER. Not only does it taste bad, but it can kill you. In fact, methanol is used to denature ethanol products, rendering them undrinkable by making you violently ill when you drink even that small of an amount. If you want to make drinkable alcohol read about it here.
Producing methanol is a much less involved process than producing ethanol. Put wood chunks or shavings (or paper) into the bottom of your cooking vessel and add enough water to cover the wood. Heat the cooking vessel to around 78C and wait as the methanol vaporizes from the wood and out the condenser coil and into your storage container.
If you are making both ethanol and methanol make sure you label them. I can’t stress to you how important it is that you don’t drink methanol.
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