Formats & logistics
Methanol conversions
Suppliers quote bulk in tonnes and packs in litres. Here is the arithmetic, and why bulk settles on weight.
- Density 20 °C
- 0.792 kg/L
- 1 tonne
- ~1,263 L
- 1,000 L IBC
- ~792 kg
- Boiling point
- 64.7 °C
Suppliers quote bulk in tonnes and packaged goods in litres. A meaningful share of the confusion in methanol procurement is nothing more complicated than that, compounded by the fact that methanol is noticeably lighter than water and people's intuition is calibrated on water.
This page has the conversions, the reason bulk deliveries settle on weight rather than volume, and the temperature effect that makes the distinction matter.
Key points
- Methanol density is 0.792 kg per litre at 20 °C.
- One tonne occupies approximately 1,263 litres.
- A 1,000-litre IBC holds about 792 kg — not a tonne, which surprises people.
- Density falls as temperature rises, so a fixed volume is a variable mass. Bulk therefore settles on weight.
- Always confirm whether a quoted price is per tonne or per litre before comparing two suppliers.
Weight and volume
| From | To | Working |
|---|---|---|
| 1 litre | 0.792 kg | Density at 20 °C |
| 1 tonne | ≈ 1,263 L | 1,000 ÷ 0.792 |
| 25 L can | ≈ 20 kg | 25 × 0.792 |
| 205 L drum | ≈ 162 kg | 205 × 0.792 |
| 1,000 L IBC | ≈ 792 kg | 1,000 × 0.792 |
| 1 t in IBCs | ≈ 1.26 IBCs | 1,263 ÷ 1,000 |
| 1 t in drums | ≈ 6.2 drums | 1,263 ÷ 205 |
A “1,000 litre” IBC is not filled with 1,000 litres. Ullage is left for thermal expansion, so actual net contents are a little below the arithmetic above. Take the fill weight from the delivery documentation, not from the container's nominal capacity.
Why bulk settles on weight
Liquid density falls as temperature rises. A tanker loaded on a cold morning and discharged on a warm afternoon contains the same mass of methanol but a slightly larger volume, and the difference is easily large enough to matter across a 25-tonne load.
Settling on weight removes the ambiguity entirely: the weighbridge does not care what the temperature is. That is why bulk contracts are written per tonne, why delivery notes record mass, and why a dispute about a volume reading is a dispute you should not be having in the first place.
For packaged goods the convention flips — containers are sold by nominal volume because the container is the unit — which is precisely why comparing a per-litre packaged price against a per-tonne bulk price requires you to do the conversion carefully. See how UK prices are built up.
Other useful physical figures
- Boiling point: 64.7 °C.
- Flash point: around 11 °C — below ordinary room temperature, which is the reason for most of the storage requirements.
- CAS number: 67-56-1. Quote it in enquiries to remove all ambiguity about the substance.
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