Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Handheld gas sensor distinguishes methanol from ethanol

Good news!

"Drinking as little as 6 ml of methanol can be fatal. Since the start of the year, there have been 1636 reported cases of methanol poisoning across a number of countries. ... developed a handheld gas analyser that is able to successfully discriminate between methanol, ethanol and acetone. Additionally, they showed the device is capable of differentiating between low concentrations of methanol (1 ppm) and high concentrations (up to 62000 ppm) of ethanol within 2 minutes, essential for the analysis of alcoholic beverages. ... Additionally, the researchers investigated the potential to detect methanol in breath samples. An ethanol intoxicated volunteer with a blood alcohol content of 0.54‰ provided a breath sample, which was subsequently spiked with a concentration of methanol slightly above that of serious methanol intoxication (135ppm). When analysed, the device could clearly differentiate between methanol and ethanol in breath samples." (emphasis added)

Handheld gas sensor distinguishes methanol from ethanol (10/8/2019)

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