>Thanks Marc for your contribution with this "oldtimer". >If you can scan the relevant pages, I«ll appreciate it very much. >Regards. >Ricardo Tournier
Yes, indeed, thankyou Marc. If we could nail down the purifying and impurities issues, the whole process could be almost self-contained, the holy grail. Any chance of your translating it to English, Ricardo? :-) Maybe Babelfish would do most of the work (definitely not all). By the way, Ken Provost, if you're reading this, salt (sodium chloride) is cheap and obtainable enough, and easy to dry. Any idea how much water a pound/kilo of salt would absorb? Best Keith Addison Journey to Forever Handmade Projects Tokyo http://journeytoforever.org/ >----- Original Message ----- >From: F. Marc de Piolenc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> >Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 12:36 AM >Subject: [biofuel] Glycerin and absolute alcohol > > > > All the recent traffic about glycerol and about absolute alcohol was > > making my brain itch - I had seen something, somewhere that actually > > tied those two things together. > > > > Here it is, from E. Boullanger: Distillerie Agricole et Industrielle > > (Paris: Ballire, 1924), translated rather freely from the French: > > > > "But according to Mr. Mariller, the use of water-adsorbing substances > > instead of alcohol adsorbing substances [for separating alcohol/water > > mixtures by adsorption] must necessarily be more economical, for with > > alcohol-adsorbents water, the third substance [adsorbent] and the > > alcohol/ substance mixture must be evaporated and the mixture > > subsequently fractionated to recover pure alcohol. This results in > > additional vaporization which penalizes the overall cost of the method. > > Contrarily, with water adsorbents, only water and a little entrained > > alcohol (if any) must be subsequently vaporized; steam consumption then > > falls to 30 kg per hectoliter of alcohol, or approximately frs 0.40 at > > the current [1924] price of coal. > > > > These considerations led Mr. Mariller to his absolute alcohol production > > process by dehydration using glycerine. Alcoholic vapors passing through > > pure glycerine yield 99.2” alcohol directly, and merely adding potassium > > carbonate, for example, to the glycerine is sufficient for easily > > obtaining 99.8”. The glycerine and the salt that it holds in solution > > are regenerated and returned to the circuit." > > > > It goes on to describe in detail the Mariller-Granger process and the > > apparatus used in it. If this is of interest to anybody, I will continue > > the translation, or simply scan the relevant pages for any francophone > > out there. > > > > It has not escaped me that this information begs the question of how to > > obtain glycerine of sufficient purity in the first place. Obviously, > > further research is needed. If we're lucky, the impurities in the crude > > glycerine from ethyl ester production will be benign. and the crude > > stock will thus be usable in alcohol production as is. If not, perhaps > > only one impurity that can be easily removed is a problem. Perhaps... > > > > Best to all, > > Marc de Piolenc > > Iligan, Philippines Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
