Greg Harbican
8 Sep 2004 15:40:16 -0000
I had this book, but, almost forgot were it was. Methanol Production and Use, Edited by: Wu-Hsun Cheng and Harold H. Kung ISBN: 0-8247-9223-8 1994 ( 10th printing ) Chapter 7 is all about methanol and agriculture. Here is some excerpts from it: On pages 255 and 256, the impression is given, that methanol may be of use to both C3 and C4 plants. Pg. 255 " Plants have a limited capability for absorption of aqueous nutrients through foliage, but with the addition of methanol, penetration is enhanced. Rapid up take of methanol by plant tissue has been known for decades, and more recently, the metabolism of methanol in minutes by passage through tetrahydrofolate to serine and subsequent sugars has been understood for years." " ... the uptake of methanol by plants in light leaves no significant residual methanol above baseline as detectable by as chromatography within 15 - 30 min. of penetration " " Methanol is a concentrated liquid source of carbon, but, only very low concentrations ( usually less than 1% methanol ) .... " higher concentrations generally found to be toxic " Pg. 256 " Nonomura and Benson recently established that the application of concentrations of 10 - 100% methanol to some crops, increased photosynthetic productivity. " " Plant metabolism of concentrations of methanol that was previously considered to be toxic was achieved by application with high-intensity sunlight. " Laboratory and field observations support indications that methanol inhibits photorespiration " Greg H. ----- Original Message ----- From: Keith Addison To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 2004 05:34 Subject: Re: [biofuel] Re: Use for wash water Hi Peter >Lot's more if anyone is interested. Yes! Interested. So is the archives. Best wishes Keith >Hi Greg ; > >Yes this is a potentially useful application of >methanol if you don't recover it from the wash water. > >I think it is C3 plants which benefit from methanol >though. From my library "Methanol Production and >Use", 1994, pp 254 : > >"These photosynthetically efficient plants, generally >referred to as C4 plants (plants for which the first >product of photosynthesis is a four carbon sugar), are >generally tropical weeds and comprise a few of our >major food crops, that is, corn, sugar cane, sorghum, >and amaranth. C4 plants generally have higher light >intensity, drought stress and heat tolerances than C3 >plants (plants for which th e first product of >photosynthesis is a tree carbon sugar). With rare >exceptions, all other major food crops are C3 plants >in which photorespiration can occur in sufficiently >high rates to stop growth for several hours per day. > >Photorespiration happens when light and heat are too >intense. "Air contains only about 0.033% carbon >dioxide but about 20% oxygen. Oxygen competes for the >same binding sites as carbon dioxide, that is, for the >enzyme ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase." (Easy for >YOU to say). "When oxygen uptake outcompetes carbon >dioxide uptake by plants in light, the plant is >photorespiratory." In other words, photosysthesis >(growth) stops under heat and drought stress. The >plant withers in the midday sun. Not only does plant >growth stop, but it actually reverses, in that the >sugars previously manufactured during photosysthesis >are sugards are converted back to carbion dioxide and >water during photorespiration. Not a good thing. > >"Theoretically the control of photorespiration across >the food crops of the world could double yields." > >" As a plant source of carbon, methanol is a liquid >concentrate: 1 cc of methanol provides the equivalent >fixed-carbon substrate of over 2,000,000 cc of ambient >air." > >"..but only very low concentrations (usually less than >1% methanol) were previously utilized in laboratory >studies, higher concentrations generally having been >found to be toxic to plant tissues." > >"... the application of 10-100% methanol to some crops >increased photosynthetic productivity. Plant >metabolism of concentrations of methanol that were >previously considered toxic was achieved by >application with high intensity light." > >" Methanol treatments of C3 plants have been found to >reult in growth improvement, but methanol on C4 plants >does not enhance growth. This observation is >consistent with the inhibition of photorepiration by >methanol since C4 plants have very low rates of >photorespiration under high light intensities". > >Lot's more if anyone is interested. > >Best Regards, > >Peter G. >Thailand > > > > >--- Greg Harbican <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Don't forget that some plants are C4 type plants and > > when it is hot can not uptake CO2, but, do have the > > ability to uptake methanol instead to use the Carbon > > in it, when they can not uptake CO2, so you may end > > up fertilizing them, instead of killing them. > > > > Greg H. > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: bioveging > > To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com > > Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 05:36 > > Subject: [biofuel] Re: Use for wash water > > > > > > My thinks the lye in the water as well as the > > methanol would not > > fair well on the paint :) Although if you have any > > defoliating of > > such things as Poison Ivy it works greeat for > > that. > > > > L. 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