Actually, the process is more complex than any of us have answered. Henk brought up the destructive distillation of wood to make methanol, which works (actually did that in 8th grade science class, in a regular flask and you don't need a vacuum), but everyone seems to have forgotten one of the conditions, "in a vacuum". f the vacuum is applied first and then the heat, all the volatiles (i.e. water present in the wood, even well cured wood has about 7% water content) present at the wood first will come out sooner and then dehydration and breakdown of the cellulose and lignins with the accompanying other processes...just too mcuh stuff going on to list all of it.
Allan Fish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
on 2/4/04 11:23 PM, Mark Delaney at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Allan is correct, this is the basis for making charcoal.Can't take the credit for that statement. I simply said, "Nope - won't melt."
I forgot all about destructive distillation process to make charcoal.
Like I said, I USED to know some chemists.
> Those lnkages in cellulose make it indegistible to anything but a few bacteria (mainly
> found in the gut of termites).
A really good selection of bacteria that to digest cellulose can also be found in the intestinal tracts of horses. That's why horse poop mixed in your compost pile makes such wonderfully digested compost.
Allan
So much water, so little time!
Website: http://chemprof.tripod.com/fishing.html
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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