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How to Make Methanol From Sugar

Methanol is a common chemical additive in fuels and household products. In its pure form, the alcohol is highly flammable and has a colorless flame. It can be made from almost any organic product, but it must be produced in a well-ventilated area, such as outdoors or in controlled laboratory setting because of the risk of explosion. Methanol can be made from a sugar solution, but yeast and pectin must be present for the necessary chemical reaction.

Things You'll Need

1 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups water
Saucepan
2 beakers
Packet of yeast
1 tablespoon pectin
Plastic wrap
Rubber stopper
Tubing

Instructions

- 1
  Dissolve 1 cup of granulated sugar in 2 1/2 cups of water in a saucepan. Heat the pan to boiling, stirring the contents to ensure the sugar is incorporated. Pour the solution into a beaker and allow it to cool until the temperature is between 105 and 110 degrees.
- 2
  Add 1 packet of yeast and a tablespoon of pectin to the solution. Stir the contents and loosely cover the beaker with plastic wrap.
- 3
  Observe the beaker's contents for several days. Methanol can be made when the bubbling action caused by the yeast ceases and the liquid is not as cloudy.
- 4
  Place the rubber stopper into the beaker. Insert one end of tubing through the hole in the stopper and the other end into an empty beaker.
- 5
  Heat the beaker containing the solution to a boil slowly. Vapor will travel through the tubing and condense into the second beaker. The first amount of distilled liquid to appear in the second beaker is methanol.

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