Safety Precaution:

1. Before starting the experiment, review the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on methanol (CH3OH). This sheet can be found in the MSDS notebook located in the laboratory. 2. Methanol is relatively toxic fluid. It can cause eye, skin and respiratory tract irritation when carelessly exposed to lab personnel. 3. Personal protective equipment shall include safety glasses with side shields. Disposable nitrile gloves should be worn when handling the CH3OH solutions and also local ventilation. 4. If in case there is explosion due to over pressure, open the cooling system to condense the vapour and reduce power heating rate. 5. Do not touch the reboiler as it will be very hot and can result in skin injuries. Therefore, boiler should be covered with an insulator. 6. Make sure the safety shield is in front of the boiling flask and distillation column. 7. The Distillation column should not be heated until the mixture has reached the Reboiler section of unit. 8. Pumping of flammable hazardous chemicals will be conducted in this experiment. Check all hoses and connections before starting the experiment. If a spill occurs, turn off the pumps (if possible without injury) and immediately get in touch with the Laboratory Services Coordinator or faculty member. 9. Make sure you have an eye on your group members respective to how they are operating the distillation column. The electrical wires for the thermocouples are carelessly exposed. If lab personnel were to accidentally touch them while conducting experiment, they run the risk of an electric shock. 10. The persistent use of fluids like water and methanol could lead to fluid spillage. If lab personnel were to walk over an affected area, they run the risk of injuries due to a fall. 11. Samples coming from the column will be at temperatures of up to 100C. Make
sure that you hold the sample vial using tongs or heat resistant gloves. Do not hold the sample vial with you bear hands whilst taking a liquid sample from the column. 12. After you have taken a liquid sample make sure you screw a lid onto the sample vial immediately or else you will loose some of the liquid sample as vapour and change its composition.

13. This distillation column has to be started up by warming it slowly, otherwise you will have trouble running it without flooding the column. 14. Collect all waste from the standards in the container marked DISTILLATION WASTE STANDARDS. Place the remainder of the samples in the container marked DISTILLATION RECYCLE.