Hello all,

On Top Gear they once gave a recipe for Bio-diesel by adding "White Spirit" to Canola/Vegetable Oil. Thing is I have NFI what "White Spirit" is.

"Naphtha (CAS No.: 8032-32-4, 8030-30-6, 8002-05-9; aka petroleum ether, white spirit (though in the UK white spirit is something completely different), Ligroin; VM&P Naphtha (CAS No. 64742-89-8); Varnish Makers and Painter's Naphtha [1]; Benzin; Petroleum Naphtha, Naphtha ASTM, Petroleum Spirits, shellite, ronsonol; not to be confused with Naphthalene) is a group of various liquid hydrocarbon intermediate refined products of varying boiling point ranges from 20 to 75 °C (68 to 167 °F), which may be derived from oil or from coal tar, and perhaps other primary sources." - WIKIPEDIA.

OK. So to Australians White Spirit is Naphtha which we commonly call Shellite.

But in a British Context (see red bit), what is White Spirit? I've been told its equivalent is Mineral Turpentine.

Any ideas?

PS. Don't panic this is not going into a Land Rover. $2,000.00 later and my Disco will never see Bio-diesel again.

AFAIK it's dry cleaning fluid here. Definitely not Shellite, which is purely the original unleaded petrol ... from way back.

Cheers

__________________
Fidei Defensor

2003 Xtreme

More from WIKI

"Mineral Spirits also called Stoddard solvent [CAS 8052-41-3][1], is a petroleum distilate commonly used as a paint thinner and mild solvent. In Europe, it is referred to as white spirit".

Does herein lie the correct answer

Another clue... http://www.palacechemicals.co.uk/Solvents.htm

"SOMETIMES CALLED MINERAL TURPENTINE, WHITE SPIRIT IS THE BEST SOLVENT FOR THINNING ALKYD BASED OIL PAINTS. CONFORMS TO BS245"


http://fuel.papo-art.com/ - This explains international names of fuels.

UK White Spirits = Mineral Turpentine
AU White Spirits = Dry Cleaning Fluid (cheers Rosco)

deffo not dry cleaning fluid....

see here http://www.ec.gc.ca/nopp/docs/rpt/de...en/problem.cfm

its trichloroethylene used for dry cleaning

but always willing to contradisct myself.... see here

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

thanks

Steve

AFAIK White Spirit is Pure Gum Turpentine as opposed to Mineral Turpentine. Commonly used to thin artists paints. Also a good mix in wood finishes as it melts beeswax.

It is plant based not petroleum based.

And I'm not a Pom

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Numpty

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The next question I have is does anybody know what the Mobil Equivalent to Naphtha (Shellite) is? I need to buy bulk Naphtha and as I have a MobilCard it needs to be Mobil. Their Shellite equivalent "Mobilite" hasn't been available for ages. I think its now called "Mobil D3135 Naphtha"

Now that sounds more like it.
I can remember the oldies having it on the farm in the 50's

Heres me thinking Bio was just a bit of chip fat and moonshine?

I thought it was gin.