As a favour for a friend, I did an experiment to see if methanol (ie a byproduct of fermenting wine, which is quite poisonous, as opposed to the good alcohol which is ethanol or ethyl alcohol) can be eliminated via regular distillation using simple equipment. Surprisingly I found it quite difficult.
Methyl distills at roughly 65C, ethyl at 78C, and water at 100C. I got very close to the boiling point of the ethyl (75C) and yet nothing would distill over. I even used aluminum foil as a thermal barrier to help the methyl be carried over to the condenser, and still nothing. Either this means that no matter what a small amount of methanol will be present in distilled/purified alcohol, or somewhere I made a mistake with my setup.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment