@Murph I bought some Zeolite to use as my drying agent. It can be used over and over by drying it in an oven. I haven't tried it yet so I don't know how much residue will be left. Your coffee filter idea sounds like it would work fine but I figure I'll just run it through the distiller one last time which will completely remove any residue. I also bought an alcohol hydrometer so I can check my results. Ben
Well, I finally got around to my little experiment and was able to make 100% (200 proof) Ethanol fuel using the equipment in my previous post. I started with cheap Vodka and distilled it twice. The first distillation got me to 85% and the second to 95%. Then I added the Zeolite pellets, let it stand overnight, and ran it through the distiller a third time and final time. Voila, pure ethanol with no additives. Interestingly, I tested Moda Flame bio-ethanol with the hydrometer and found it too is 100% Ethanol but with a bitterant added to prevent consumption. Ben
Im guessing this means your total tested volume is 100.5% More likely the bitterant has the same sg as ethanol
@geeves ,The bittering agent is a solid, doesn't distill over in any way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denatonium Murph
I was talking about the comercial bioethanol which had the bittering agent added after distillation. Of course if we could rely on a trip though the still removing the bittering agent then much fun could be had at low cost
That made me smile. Denatonium dilutions of as little as 10 ppm are unbearably bitter to most humans. So, more like 100.001% to 100.05%. The steam from ethanol is 95.57% alcohol so that's the best you can get from distillation alone. So, I assumed that commercial fuel alcohol would be 95% ethanol and 5% denaturing agents. But Moda Flame at least is very close to 100% ethanol according to my hydrometer. Ben
That's too much math for me. I started with 3.5 liters of cheap vodka and ended up with less than a pint of 100% ethanol at a cost of about $20. However, it was my first time using the still which came from Japan with poor instructions. I'm not sure I got all the alcohol out of the vodka on the first distillation. It's not economical but it might appeal to an alcoholic gram weenie backpacker more concerned about weight than cost. I'll have to try @geeves suggestion and try distilling some Moda Flame to see if it removes the bitterant. Ben
I did not mean to be finicky, just curious. I see this as a good subject, Ben. It does also remove those additives that, in my mind, toxify the environment around the burning alcohol stove. Well done.
Might not hurt to try and brew a batch of sugar wine. Could get the wine to 12-15% or possibly more. Could distill that down. Would probably be a lot cheaper
@z1ulike , Ben, you can also add in a material separation agent to distill the alcohol from the water, makes for a clean separation of dilstillates from the start. Murph
One of the reasons for this method was the elimination of additives. Is that "material separation agent" considered an additive?
From the fuel point of view, why try to get the bitterant out of the Moda, if it is essentially pure ethanol otherwise?
Bio-ethanol is part of the branding, it is not a chemical description. It still by law contains a denaturant, usually 5-10% iso-propanol or methanol or a propriatary ingrediant, in addition to the bitterant. The bitterant concentration could probably be reduced by distillation or chromatography of some sort, but removing the denaturants is nearly impossible.
I did not know that. Thanks. Unfortunately the separation agents are toxic, flammable, carcinogenic, on in the case of benzene; all three. Ben
@z1ulike , Ben, I would think that adding table salt would do that as well, raise the boiling point of the water, making the two boiling points more distant and distinct. We've a few damn good chemists here, perhaps they could chime in here with more info! Murph
The material separation agents listed in Wikipedia are benzene, pentane, cyclohexane, hexane, heptane, isooctane, acetone, and diethyl ether. Salt isn't listed. Ben
If my 40 year back high school chemistry serves me correctly, salt helps with the freezing point and not the boiling point.
