bath temps don't mean shit bump it up.
speaking of bumping you'll see

What oil is in there? If its castor oil it will polymerize at 149*C, and nitromethane comes over after 100*C. Jon was right you do want to add more heat.

I don't think so, I almost suggested that but I had assumed that perhaps you didn't have a magnetic stirrer and this was an easier option.
That is weird, if all else fails you could get a $8 stove from a wal-mart like store and, speaking out of experience, they can get hot enough to melt aluminum pans given enough time and abuse.

how you going to heat it??? you talking about a stirrer/hotplate???
don't need chips then.
i'd beat the guy who sold me that with the same.
that is if i could get out of my wheelchair.
barring that i'd just skeet on him.

Naf1, I do not know what oil is in the fuel.  Apparently they add non foaming agents, wetting agents, and free radical inhibitors.  I've considered a vacuum distillation, but I think for now I'm just going to try with a new hot plate.  Thanks for the suggestions guys!

Has anyone here ever used the azeotrope with the ketone in the dropping funnel for an Al/Hg?  The excess methanol shouldn't hurt things as long as you just increase the drip rate accordingly right?

So  I'm having some trouble distilling MeNO2 from 20% nitro RC fuel.

Quote from: akcom on March 18, 2010, 02:32:26 PM
So  I'm having some trouble distilling MeNO2 from 20% nitro RC fuel. 



So why don't you get 100% and save a step. I know a place that sells 100% MeNO2 for 34.95 a quart. I don't want to overstep boundaries and get in trouble with vesp for sourcing but I will tell you how I learned of the place. In the back of popular mechanics is a model rocket supply seller that rhymes with smyrotec. Lot of other cool shit and lots of really cool glass trinkets. You know the ones that aunt Paula liked with three necks and twentyfour forty connections and her brothers Liebig Allihn and Friedrich. Everything is very expensive and over priced and i don't recommend shopping there for that reason but it will give you some where to shove off of and get some momentum. Other places will come with your due diligence. D

Boy i am glad I did a little due diligence of my own. I havent delt with them in a while so i looked them up and wanted to make sure my info was up to date. These people sold all strong acids, bases, oxidizers, solvents and quite alot of reagents. guess we lost another source to stupid people that cant play with fire correctly!

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A Pennsylvania fireworks chemical supplier was sentenced to federal prison today for violating a consent decree by selling illegal and highly dangerous fireworks components.

John Rasmus, of Hallstead, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 5 months in federal prison, 5 months home confinement and three years of supervised release by U.S. District Judge James M. Munley, Middle District of Pennsylvania. Rasmus pled guilty in October 2005 to three counts of criminal contempt for violating the terms of a previous illegal fireworks-related consent decree.

In the previous plea deal in November 2004, Rasmus, the owner of Pyrotek, pled guilty to selling illegal fireworks components in violation of federal law and agreed to a permanent injunction barring him from distributing fuels and oxidizers, the chemicals used to make illegal fireworks. Rasmus was sentenced to 1 year probation and fined $10,000 on those charges.

Within weeks of being sentenced in the previous plea agreement, Rasmus started up another company, NE Lab Supply, and continued selling illegal fireworks components, including fuels, oxidizers, cardboard tubes and fuses. Rasmus violated the consent decree and the terms of his probation when he made multiple sales of prohibited chemicals.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) began investigating Rasmus in 2003 after reports that a home-made flash-powder device made from components sold by Pyrotek to a juvenile had exploded causing property damage. CPSC made buys of illegal fireworks components from Pyrotek and NE Lab Supply.

One Pyrotek customer died in 2004 after his hands were blown off by an explosion while he was making illegal fireworks in his home.

Under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, CPSC prohibits the sale of the most dangerous types of fireworks and the components intended to make them. The banned fireworks include various large aerial devices, M-80s, quarter-sticks, half-sticks and other large firecrackers. Any firecracker with more than 50 milligrams of explosive powder and any aerial firework with more than 130 milligrams of flash powder, is banned under federal law, as are mail order kits and components designed to build these fireworks.

Didn't work.  There was no visible separation between the layers.  This was using water cooled to 0C in order to reduce the solubility of MeNO2.

If you flood the azeotrope with H₂O then it at first gets cloudy as the MeNO₂ starts to be forced out of solution then on sitting it forms an upper layer that idealy should be washed again to remove any latent Nitromethane. I suggest fully to do the flooding with brine solution to make the solubility of the Nitromethane drop.

All in all though if one wanted to go this route why distill a mess of liquid just to go thru more trouble. I suggest brine washes and seperation before distillation that way what your distilling is mostly Nitromethane Compound.

Sedit, I did notice a very small layer on top.  Why would the MeNO2, with a density greater than both MeOH and H2O end up on top?
So I would be better off washing my racing fuel with cold brine and then distilling off the MeNO2?