Reaction of Potassium Permanganate and Glycerine

Check out this Video. I saw Ray Mears do this on a dvd I have. Would this be a viable source of fire, in an emergency/survival situation? Is this stuff stable enough to carry in a pack?

Yes, but keep them far apart in your pack.

The KMnO4 (potassium permanganate) is a strong oxidizer which will try and react with stuff (skin, food, fabrics, fuel, etc). In small quantities it can be used as an antiseptic/antifungul. Eating 10-20 grams will kill you. It'll also stain most things purple.

The glycerine is harmless and is used in soap.

-Blast

When lacking all other means of firelighting then this is a perfectly viable means of firelighting. The method is as follows;

Put one teaspoon of Potassium Permanganate on to something flammable such as a sheet of paper or dry cloth i.e. cotton. Add a few drops of neat antifreeze (source of the Glycerine) then wrap the cloth or paper around the mixture tightly (this is to get the chemical reaction going). Place inside your tinder and wait a few minutes. It should ignite on its own to produce fire.

The Potassium Permanganate can also be mixed with sugar to produce the same effect using 9 parts Potassium Permanganate to 1 part sugar. The finer the grains of Potassium Permanganate and sugar then the chances of it igniting when crushed between two stones will be greater.

In the same way as Potassium Permanganate, Potassium Chlorate (3 parts) to Sugar (1 part) mixed together and initiated with some car battery acid will produce a similar effect but burns a little bit more fiercely.

Potassium Permanganate is best kept in the medical kit as an antiseptic and antifungal. Its multiple uses make it a very useful chemical and can even be used to sterilize water in low concentrations in a dire emergency (not recommended though). Sugar is best kept for the hot tea.

Potassium permanganate is also been fairly hard to find for a while, at least around here. It's got a lot of uses, but there are more error forgiving things that are a lot more stable for all of them. It's a jack of trades, master of none, and watched by the Feds IIRC.

i may be confused, but is potassium permanganate the main active compound in some of the powdered, industrial strength drain-clog products? i was having a hard time remembering the exact name of the chemical, but thought i had found it next to the draino at home depot. IIRC it was a green powder. i had no use for a 5 gallon supply, and because i wasnt 100% it was the right stuff i didnt buy it. any ideas?

This mixture is sometimes used by the U.S. Forest Service to create backfires or controlled burns. The Potassium Permanganate is contained in a ping-pong ball type plastic capsule and the Glycerine is automatically injected into the capsule just prior to the capsule being dispensed from an aircraft. This makes it possible to create a large fire quickly.

I bought a small quantity of KMnO4 on eBay about 3 months ago.

That may have been potassium hydroxide, but I'm not dead-certain-sure.

Sue

Active incredient in most common drain cleaners is sodium hydroxide, also called caustic soda-lye.

Just a thought:
Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's practical.
Rather than carry two messy chemicals, why not invest in a couple more butane lighters and some additional fire starters?

Potassium Permanganate isn't really a messy chemical to carry, a small vial carried in a Medical Kit is always useful for certain medical needs such as its use as an antiseptic etc. The idea behind this chemical reaction is really about improvisation. Take a chemical from the medical kit, mix it with some antifreeze you may have from a vehicle or some sugar etc. Mix it in a sheet of dry cloth or paper; instant fire. Same idea would be to use a battery to create a spark to ignite tinder or use with some wire wool. These techniques are certainly easier than making fire through friction fire lighting. An example would be in the film 'Castaway'. Toms Hanks character had a torch, which means he had a battery, he failed to attempt to create fire using the battery, instead ended up using the fire plough method. I know what I would have attempted to use in the first instance to make fire.

I sometimes carry some. The KMnO4 I got from a UK chemists without any difficulty, and is relatively easy to store if you can find some teeny, tiny bottles (a little goes a long way). Glycerine is also easy to buy but I found it harder to store because it seemed to leak through smaller gaps than water does. Obviously you need to have a lot of confidence in your containment because it is so dangerous (and will make your kit messy).

In use it works for fire-starting but is not really fantastic. It doesn't go as well in cold conditions. It makes a flame, but it doesn't burn for very long - a few seconds. Not as good as, say, vasaline-soaked cotton plus spark.

To be honest I have it partly for fun value as I like fireworks. Also, the KMnO4 has many other uses; as an anti-septic of varying strengths depending on dilution, and as a dye marker. It is poisonous to fish etc so you need to be careful about it getting into wild water.

im pretty sure i was looking for potassium per_____ when i was out, but knowing me i couldve gotten them confused. thanks for the input. <3

I think that antifreeze is DILUTED ethylene glycol. It is mixed with water, so it may not burn. Just like a wet piece of paper.

About the fire starting part I agree with one poster and prefer lighters and other firestarters. Imagine yourself in a tricky situation and some LEO finds this stuff in your bag the same day he has a fight with his wife and he isnt in the mood to hear your justification.

A box of matches or pic lighter is more "every-day" thing than some fire-starting chemical in a small bottle. If you still need something multipurpose, try alcohol wipes.

Hello,

My father used potassium permanganate for as long as I can remember back to use when he had a sore throat/infections in his gums but also when during our holidays we caught a fungal infection between our toes, I think you can that athletes foot in English.
The recipe for a mouth "wash" solution was simple put 1-3 little potassium permanganate crystals in a glass of water and let them dissolve, the water had to have a very light pink/purple colour then it was OK to use.
Gurgle with it and spit out, it worked for him and my sore throat also got better when I used it.
For athletes foot, just fill a plastic wash basin or bucket with warm water and add more crystals, the water could really have a good purple colour, put your feet in and let them soak worked great. This happened as far as 40 years ago and I’ve stayed using it ever since.

I think REI used to sell a chemical fire starter or even still does, I’m not sure it used/uses potassium permanganate however.
I tried potassium permanganate and glycol myself and wasn’t successful in getting a fire going, I guess they Light-My-Fire Firesteel is still one of the best fire starters around, it never failed on me yet.

Cheers,

Bagheera

Antifreeze is diluted ethylene glycol or diluted propylene glycol, which are both diol alcohols (has 2 OH groups). Glycerine or the other name glycerol is a triol alcohol (has 3 OH groups). The chemical reaction between all three sugar alcohols with Potassium Permanganate would be similar. I am not sure what the percentage of water in the diluted ethylene glycol is required to stop the reaction. The ambient temperature would also have an effect. What I would do if the antifreeze was quite diluted would be to add some sugar (if available) to the solution to turn it into a sugary syrup. As for the LEO finding some Potassium Permanganate during a search, I don't know, is this chemical restricted because of the its use in methcathinone production. Is Potassium Permanganate a proscribed illegal chemical in the US? Would the LEO really arrest you because you had some purple crystals in your FAK? Do you think you could bribe the LEO with a cure for his itchy toes or would get you into more trouble?. Do LEOs in the US have a sense of humour behind those silvered sunglasses

I completely agree with you. A box of 'every day' Lucifer matches is much more preferable than fire starting with chemicals in a small bottle. Its just that Potassium Permanganate is a really useful chemical to carry in a PSK because it has multiple uses.

I just recently saw some Potassium permanganate at my 'water store'. I get my R.O. filters there and it was on the shelf in 'large bottles' that seemed to be be for individual sale. Don't remember the price but IIRC they were 100 % potassium permanganate. No apparent restrictions.