Methanol spill

Methanol may enter the environment from methanol spills because it is used in formaldehyde solutions to prevent polymerization (Worthing and Hance, 1991). 

Personnel involved in the handling of methanol require eye and skin protection from the irritating properties of methanol in the event of a spill. Contact lenses should not be worn, since plastic lens materials may absorb and concentrate methanol against the eye. Additional respiratory protection is not required with adequate local explosion-proof ventilation. 

The burglar trips and breaks his flashlight and also a large bottle of methanol that spills into a holding tank of 1.8 m diameter. He then uses a cigarette lighter to see. Use property data from the tables in Chapter 6 the gas specific heat is constant at 1.2 J/g K, the density for the gas in the room can be considered constant at 1.18 kg/m3 and the heat transfer coefficient at the methanol surface is 15 W/m2 K. 

Methanol also seems to biodegrade quickly when spilled and it dissolves and dilutes rapidly in water. It has been recommended as an alternative fuel by the EPA and the DOE, partly because of reduced urban air pollutant emissions compared to gasoline. Most methanol-fueled vehicles use a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline called M85. Building a methanol infrastructure would not be as difficult as converting to hydrogen. While methanol can be produced from natural gas, it can also be distilled from coal or even biomass. In the 1980s, methanol was popular for a brief time as an internal-combustion fuel and President Bush even discussed this in a 1989 speech. 

The quite loud explosions (either immediate or delayed) which occur when LNG (containing usually high proportions of heavier materials) is spilled onto water are non-combustive and harmless [1]. Superheating and shock-wave phenomena are involved [2], There is a similar effect when LNG of normal composition (90% methane) is spilled on to some CsCghydrocarbons or methanol, acetone or... 

A few LNG spill tests on organic liquids carried out at Conoco by Yang (1973) led to reproducible explosions. When saturated hydrocarbons from Cj through Cg (including many isomers) were used, immediate explosions were noted. Delays of 5 sec or longer were recorded before they occurred on methanol, acetone, or methyl ethyl ketone. Few or none were recorded for higher alcohols or for hydrocarbons above Cg (or benzene). 

As a rule of thumb one should approach a hydrocarbon spill (non-fire situation) under the assumption that the liquid is vaporizing (the vapors will be invisible) and that the liberated vapors are heavier than air unless proven otherwise. The expected conduct of a heavier-than-air vapor is for it to drop and spread at or below ground level much as a liquid would. The big difference is that a liquid will be visible and its boundaries well defined. One can expect that the invisible heavier-than-air vapor will settle and collect in low spots such as ditches, basements, sewers, etc. As the vapor navels, it will be mixing with the air, thus some portions of the cloud may be too rich to bum, other sections too lean, and still others well within the explosive range. Some typical vapor densities for petroleum products are 3 to 4 for gasoline, 2.5 for naphtha, and 1.1 for methanol. For comparison, the vapor density for hydrogen gas is 0.1. 

Wear protective gloves, laboratory coat, and goggles. If a solution is spilled, absorb on tissue. If solid is spilled, as far as possible, scoop in a container and then rinse the area of the spill with methanol and absorb the methanol onto tissues. Place the tissues in the container with the solid and add sufficient household bleach (5% sodium hypochlorite solution) to cover. Allow to stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours. Add an equal volume of 5% aqueous acetone. Allow to react for 30 minutes and then wash into the drain with water/... 

Wear nitrile rubber gloves, laboratory coat, and eye protection. Cover the spill with a 1 1 1 mixture by weight of sodium carbonate or calcium carbonate, clay cat litter (bentonite), and sand. Scoop into a plastic pail and transport to the fume hood. Slowly and while stirring, add the mixture to a beaker of dry butanol or methanol. When reaction has ceased, decant the liquid into a pail of cold water, and then wash into the drain. Treat the solid as normal refuse.6-8... 

Continue stirring DNA for 5 h at room temperature. Carefully remove stirrer bar then add 1/10 vol 3 M NaAc, pH 4.0 and 2 volumes of cold ethanol. Form DNA precipitate by swirling and inversion being very careful of leakage—any spills will contain [3H]-methanol which will blow off rapidly. 

The introduction of increases first sharply a for a few seconds and then produces a rather slow decrease. This behaviour shows that H is always-able to adsorb dissociatively on a surface saturated with CO but now the spill over is prevented - or at least masked - by the reaction itself whose oxygen - containing products, mainly methanol and water, are able to partially reoxidize the surface of titania by filling some of its anionic vacancies, A similar decrease of a can be obtained by introducing pure water. The sharp initial increase of a observed in Fig,2 is to be ascribed to a thermal effect due to the starting reaction and the subsequent exothermic reoxidation of titania. 

These compounds are another example of nonionic, nonpolar compounds. They are found in trace levels in water and result from combustion processes and hydrocarbon spills. They are trace enriched from water by sorption onto CN, C-8, or C-18 and elution with ethyl acetate/toluene. Toluene is added to the ethyl acetate eluent to increase solubility of the polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and to enhance elution from the solid phase. The more hydrophobic PAHs, such as pyrene (Fig. 7.11), will recover more efficiently from a more polar reversed phase, such as CN or C-8 due to less strong van der Waals interactions between the analyte and the sorbent. The PAHs may be analyzed by either GC/MS or by HPLC. Soil samples may be processed as in Section 7.10.2 with 90% methanol extraction, followed by dilution with... 

Methanol also seems to biodegrade quickly when spilled and it dissolves and dilutes rapidly in water. It has been recommended as an alternative fuel by the EPA and the DOE, partly because of reduced urban air pollutant emissions compared to gasoline. Most methanol-fueled vehicles use a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline called M85. 

Downside reports the CER does give the feeling that the downside is being reported (e.g. it includes an article on work carried out to clean up ground after a spill of methanol contaminated with ethylene dichloride at Kitimat, Canada). 

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