Bio-white gas

Thu, January 4, 2007 - 2:10 AM

Okay, so I've been working with Silence to get a completely 'green' Biodeisel to provide to folks in the Fire conclave to burn on Burn Night. But in the process of learning about BioD, I theorized that something other than vegetable oil could be used as a base, making Bio-Lamp oil, Bio-kerosene, or even bio-white. After locating the shortest possibble molecules that might be used and looking at what the synthesis might result, I calculated that Ethyl Acetate would be the result of esterification of Ethanol and Acetone (the very shortest fatty acid). Well, sure enough, that's exactly how it's made. They take natural versions of ethanol and acetone and put them though the exactsame process as biodeisel to make EA. So, I ordered a bottle of it and ran it through the ringer:

test 1 - MSDS - flash point, reactivity, and product safety are all better than white gas. This is used as a food flavoring in small doses, so it should be reasonably safe for use.

test 2 - Combat fire sword, virgin wick, medium pour (about 125 ml) - Burn was whiter than white gas (which is bright yellow) for the most part, ignited immediately, was ready to go from the start, and even left trails on cool concrete (It's 58 degrees tonight). Towards end of burn, the flame got noticably orange-y. Subjective: flame temp felt noticably lower; strange smells while burning and on wick afterwards; wick noticabley cleaner than petrol burns would leave it; nail polish after smell.

test 3 - two batons, identical make, identical wicks, spun and stalled at same speeds, in sync with each other. One full soaked in white gas, the other full soaked in EA. One quick spin out. - Both lit immediately and held a strong flame. EA wick was always smaller and whiter than the white gas wick. White also burned louder than the EA. Several subjective tests showed the EA to be a "cooler" burn than the white gas. Alternately spinning and not spinning, the white gas went out first, but quickly followed by the EA wick. EA torch burned noticabley cleaner with much less soot. Afterburn picture confirms this.

Results: Ethyl acetate is a nearly complete substitute for white gas. It's made from green components making as environmentally stable as biodeisel. It burns cooler, but nearly as well as white gas with no real performace changes including 'back to the future' trails, fleshing, speed spinning, etc. The nail polish after scent is the only part that difficult to get around.

Remainder: EA is also a polar solvent. it's possible that it can suspend the elements necessary for colored flames. So, with the remaining 100ml of the bottle, I'll be testing it with the various colorants to see if it will take. Imagine a white gas burn with colored flames. :)

So, not only am I excited at finding a cool burning, cleaner version of white gas, but I'm feeling intellectually vindicated in actually applying chemical knowledge to locate the desired effect. It definitely has the feel of a "put up of shut up" moment (without the pressure of having someone actually say that). And I have come out on top. Wheeeee.. :)