To: 76834
What is marketed as pure ethanol, "Everclear", is really only 95% pure, alcohol has an affinity for water. The 100% stuff is called "absolute alcohol"The water/alcohol mixture has a depressed boiling point that results in the 95% limit. To get to 100% you add benzene to the alcohol. That takes the last 5% of the water away, but makes the end product toxic for human consumption.
38 posted on
03/22/2005 6:48:58 PM PST by
Myrddin
To: Myrddin
Wouldn't concentrated sulphuric acid also absorb the remaining water, without mixing with the alcohol?
To: Myrddin
Thanks for the info.
Like I said previous, it's been awhile since I took chemistry.
Always thought it was made by progressive distallation.
46 posted on
03/22/2005 6:52:49 PM PST by
76834
To: Myrddin
The ethanol/water azeotrope boils off at 78.15 degrees C.
Little details from taking 2 years of organic chemistry in a 10 week summer cram course.
55 posted on
03/22/2005 6:57:04 PM PST by
Myrddin
To: Myrddin
The water/alcohol mixture has a depressed boiling point that results in the 95% limit. To get to 100% you add benzene to the alcohol. That takes the last 5% of the water away, but makes the end product toxic for human consumption. A molecular sieve is what most places use now. Cyclohexane is to nasty to use. Very flammable. I used to work at a plant that made ethanol, and we had a few contractors that would sneak the stuff straight out of the sieves. Gave them one heck of a hangover.
79 posted on
03/23/2005 5:13:24 AM PST by
redgolum
("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson