[matthewnovak]

I have made chemistry a hobby but I'm not very learned. I attempted to find an answer on-line but failed. I don't care if the question is answered out right or if I am send to a resource that will help me find the information on my own, either way, I enjoy learning. That said:

I built an anaerobic digester to produce methane to cook with. My gas collector is two barrels on top of each other, connected by a pipe. The bottom one is filled with water and the top one empty. As the digester produces gas and therefore pressure, it pushes the water from the bottom barrel, into the top barrel, which, in turn, provides the back-pressure to my stove.

With winter approaching, I realized that the water idea is going to freeze. I could put a heater coil around it, but that defeats the purpose of free gas. So here is my Question:

Will methane gas react with liquid ethylene glycol, if I mix antifreeze with the water, or will they remain separate solutions?(the digester also produces a small amount of sulfur dioxide, according to my research, if that affects it.)

[Borek]

Better question is - will the bacteria doing the work survive?

[Arkcon]

Its hard to understand your plumbing, so maybe you'll make us a diagram.  Although nicely combustible, methane is not that reactive to organics.  Although, that's probably due to low reaction density being a gas, but I don't see many applications that react methane with an organic solvent.

I don't know if H₂S or SO₂ produced will react with ethylene glycol.  WHy not go lower tech?  A strong enough salt water solution will also not freeze and still provide pressure.  I suspect the water is also "scrubbing" your methane free of unpleasant gasses.