My professor once asked us how to make pure alcohol and beating the azeotropic point of alcohol(95%) in distillation. The answer was to use Calcium Chloride CaCl2. This absorbs the water and does not react with the alcohol. I'm not sure about drying sodium methoxide though, it might react with sodium to form salt. Any chemist who want to comment on this?
Ken At 11:33 PM 6/8/01 +0000, you wrote: >My thoughts on filters and water!! >Since in alcohol the water is in solution I wouldn't expect a filter >to seperate it out. Alcohol is added to fuel to get water to mix with >the fuel and so pass through fuel filters and carbies. >Free water can be filtered from fuel because the water cannot "wet" >the brass or plastic mesh that is coated with oil and so stays as >dropplets on the mesh. The water still may squeeze through the mesh >under pressure depending on mesh size and composition and the surface >tension of the water. W#ater that has emulsified with an oily >substance may pass through, again because of a small dropplet size >and lower tension. If the chip shop washes out the vat with a >detergent and slops the lot into the oil pick-up drum, then a filter >could be ineffective. I would expect that a water trap or settling >seperator would remove any free water that could be seperated by >filtering. Either way the oil filtering process may be modified ( a >small sized hydrophobic mesh) to remove some water while removing the >breadcrumbs, thus saving some energy in the boiling out the water >stage. > > >--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Harmon Seaver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I think this is an excellent area of experimentation -- >thinking back, I >> can recall very simple filters that effectively removed water. Most >cars used to >> have a glass bowl on the bottom of the fuel pump, where water (and >dirt) was >> collected. It was only a copper or brass screen that did this, and >more recently >> I've seen simple brass screen filters on funnels used to fill >chainsaws that >> were designed to trap water, and did so. >> However, that was with gasoline, and gasoiline doesn't absorb >water the >> way alcohol does, so I'm not sure how well it would work with >ethanol. I'd >> better it would work better with biodiesel -- not sure what Keith >was refering >> to --- was that theoretical Keith, or were attempts actually made? >> >> >> Keith Addison wrote: >> >> > Hi Cordain >> > >> > We've dealt with filtering water out of WVO before, and the >consensus >> > was that it wouldn't work. Not sure if dehydrating ethanol by >> > filtering has come up. But the kind of filters you're talking of >> > weren't discussed. If nobody else knows the answer, I very much >hope >> > it's you who'll be providing it! Are you in a position to >experiment >> > with these filters? >> > >> > Best >> > >> > Keith Addison >> > Journey to Forever >> > Handmade Projects >> > Tokyo >> > http://journeytoforever.org/ >> > >> > >> > >> > >I'm reposting this question because I do not believe it was >answered last >> > >time I posted or perhaps I missed the reply. But their are >marine fuel >> > >filters that are designed to filter the fuel and remove the >water from it as >> > >well. Their is a serperate resevoir on the bottom of the filter >that holds >> > >the water and periodically must be dumped. I am fully aware of >their >> > >operation and intended use, however has anyone used them to >filter oil or >> > >ethanol to remove the water? >> > > >> > >The filters I have in mind are of the large marine diesel >variety and I am >> > >in the process of designing a recovery and pre-filter WVO (waste >vegetable >> > >oil) trailer and am wondering if this filter would be effective >for my >> > >purposes. Any insight is appreciated. >> > > >> > >regards, >> > >cordain >> > >dulles,va >> > >> > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >> > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >> > Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. >> > To unsubscribe, send an email to: >> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > >> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to >http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ >> >> -- >> Harmon Seaver, MLIS >> CyberShamanix >> Work 920-203-9633 [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Home 920-233-5820 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >Biofuel at Journey to Forever: >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html >Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. >To unsubscribe, send an email to: >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > ----------------------------------------------------- Click here for Free Video!! http://www.gohip.com/free_video/ Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
