Alcohol-based fuels and methanol fuels are open for discussion by everyone
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Recently, the environmental situation has been quite tense, and enterprises and institutions must eliminate or upgrade their small coal-fired boilers in order to meet environmental regulations. However, in practice, some units and enterprises that use boilers do not have natural gas pipelines. There are many methanol and alcohol-based fuels available on the market; what is their calorific value? How to handle issues related to safety during use? Which is more economical and convenient to compare: methanol, alcohol-based fuels, or natural gas? Everyone is welcome to discuss.
Alcohol-based fuels come in various levels of calorific value, depending on their price; the higher the price, the higher the calorific value as well. Some of them can reach 9,000 kcal. A key consideration when using them is to prevent detonation, as that can be dangerous. Relatively speaking, alcohol-based fuels are quite inexpensive
Alcohol-based fuels are generally made by mixing residues from small-scale chemical manufacturing, so their quality cannot be guaranteed. Using pure methanol is not economical. Generally, waste solvents from processes such as azo chemistry or the pharmaceutical industry present problems related to corrosion and odor.
Using pure methanol is not economical.
Alcohol-based fuels do not guarantee consistent quality, and the quality of burners varies as well; this can cause corrosion in the boiler and blockage of the burners. The most dangerous issue is incomplete combustion, as residues remaining inside the boiler can easily lead to an explosion in the furnace
If one comes across low-quality alcohol-based fuel, incomplete combustion can easily occur after the burner is ignited; in severe cases, this can lead to the blockage of the heat exchange tubes. I’ve seen this happen once – there was too much heavy oil in that alcohol-based fuel; the methanol was burned up, but not much of the heavy oil was consumed. It ended up accumulating in the condenser. While other condensers produce condensed water, those with such fuel produced sticky black oil, which emitted black smoke when lit by a lighter, and had a very unpleasant smell!
Pure methanol has a low calorific value, so it’s not economical to use it as a fuel. There are various types of alcohol-based fuels, but different additives result in different combustion effects; some of them also tend to cause coking, produce black smoke, and emit unpleasant odors. I’ve done my research on this
I saw an alcohol-based fuel boiler; during shutdown for maintenance, a cart was used to remove impurities, and there was 30 mm of impurities at the bottom of the boiler.
Alcohol-based fuels consist mainly of methanol along with some oil-like components. The calorific value of methanol is around 5,000, while that of oils is around 11,000. It depends on the composition of the fuel you use. There are many products on the market that are actually fuel oils being sold under the guise of alcohol-based fuels; be sure to check the various indicators in the test reports – do not use those with excessive sulfur content!
Mm-hm. We are also looking into this alcohol-based fuel, and from our research, it doesn’t seem reliable.