Hi Bill,
I am not a chemist, but did have the following in my archives.
Nitromethane is a nitroparaffin (rather than a hydrocarbon) that is
primarily used in the manufacture of paints, agricultural chemicals and
pharmaceuticals, with less than 1% of it used for fuel.
The manufacturers do not like to sell it in less than tank car quantities.
My Nitromethane is produced by Angus Chemical Company, but they won't deal
with me directly. I get it from an outfit that buys it from them in bulk and
re-bottles it in smaller quantities for retail consumption.
It was developed in 1872, and used extensively for other applications before
it was used as a rocket fuel in the 40s. Other nitroparaffins (such as
nitropropane) were used by the Grand Prix racers (Alfa, Masarati, Auto
Union, etc.) of the 30s.
The Nitro manufacturers tried to develop a new market for their product in
the 50s by promoting blends of Nitromethane and nitropropane in gasoline for
street legal use, but it never caught on.
There are several manufacturing processes utilizing various feedstocks (not
necessarily methane).
What is really interesting are the material safety data sheets. They state
that positive displacement pumps should never be used, fuel lines should
include accumulators or be plastic, and that if fuel tanks are metal rather
than plastic they should be of thin gage material. It seems that
Nitromethane is sensitive to adiabatic compression, and sudden pressure or
temperature increases will result in the fuel in the tank or fuel lines
exploding! Therefore the safe method of handling it is to intentionally
weaken all containers so that they will rupture before pressures can build
excessively. Fire is not much of a concern as Nitro is hard to ignite, will
typically self-extinguish at atmospheric pressure, and is heavier than
water, so it will sink to the bottom and self-extinguish if even a little
water is splashed on it. All of this applies only to straight nitro, not the
nitro-alcohol blends used on the Salt. The alcohol "cushions" the nitro with
enough compressibility to mask the hazard of adiabatic compression, but
increases fire hazards. So the current rules are appropriate for the blends,
although they appear to violate the MSDS recomendations. However we should
re-visit the rules if anyone ever wants to run Nitro un-cut.
Best regards,
Greg
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-land-speed@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-land-speed@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of William McIntyre
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 11:19 PM
To: land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Nitromethane
Greetings to the list!
There is a wealth of talent on this list and very few questions go
unanswered.
I was having lunch today with 2 dear friends from the top fuel wars of
the early 60's.The question came up,"where does nitromethane come
from? Ours came from Hill Bros.Chemical Co. in Phoenix (at $3.75/gal)
but beyond that,is there a chemist on the list that can describe the
base material and the manufacturing process that produces it?
Thanks in advance for answering our query.
Bill McIntyre in Mesa,Arizona where the weather is a balmy 80 degrees
but it will be 115 soon enough.
--
Bill McIntyre
IAC 3269
acromac@worldnet.att.net
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