Thread: Methanol Fuel Cell

Hydrogen fuel cells have been around for donkeys years.
In the US space program they used them in some Gemini missions. The batteries only lasted three days. They needed a power source that would last longer.

Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

Someone put a post up about methanol fuel cells about a year ago.

HI Mick, search didn't return anything. Maybe it's men though.

Originally Posted by harry

scary!
have you seen methanol burning when it shouldn't?


methanol, metho, and the other alcohol similar fuels burn with no flame.
dead set dangerous if you ask me, but you didn't.


I was at a junior school Christmas picnic years ago, one chap , grandad, lit his bbq with sawdust and metho.
some how he got confused and popped a bit more metho on the fire, it was already lit.
we came into the scene when he was screaming for no apparent reason.
it wasn't until his shirt began showing flames that anyone realised what was happening.
he was on fire.
he later died from his burns.


if you can avoid using fuel like methanol I would do it.


sure they used it in racing cars and such like, I have even sprayed methanol from a racing car engine for several metres when the carby on a jap engine in a 500 flooded the cylinder, I was lucky.


is there some other fuel this jigger can run on?

Harry, have you seen petrol burn? How about LPG? Dam lucky the guy at the picnic didn't throw some unleaded on the fire as others may have been injured. Whooomp.
If I was a fuel cell expert I would not have started this thread but from the limited research I have done there are a small range of fuels they can use.

Originally Posted by Random88

Harry, have you seen petrol burn? How about LPG? Dam lucky the guy at the picnic didn't throw some unleaded on the fire as others may have been injured. Whooomp.
If I was a fuel cell expert I would not have started this thread but from the limited research I have done there are a small range of fuels they can use.

I must admit that I know nothing about this fuel cell thing, but I stand by my comments re methanol and metho fires.

Originally Posted by harry

I must admit that I know nothing about this fuel cell thing, but I stand by my comments re methanol and metho fires.

It's not the metho that's the problem. It's the oxygen. Take the oxygen away and we wouldn't have fires. It's nasty stuff. Corrodes Landrovers as well.

The problem with metho is not that it burns. A lot of things burn.

The problem with metho is that the flame is pretty much invisible.

At least with a lot of other fuels, you can seen when they are burning. With metho, you can't.