Well, you are now talking about vacuum fermentation for which there is a patented process. Stripping off ethanol as it is produced solves one problem but the problem is that the vacuum system must deal with the massive amounts of carbon dioxide being generated by the fermentation process; so vacuum fermentation of ethanol never got off the ground.
Yes, it is possible to use a rather high vacuum to break the azeotrope and obtain 200 proof (absolute, anhydrous) ethanol. However, high vacuum distillation is best carried out in borosilicate glass, as metal stills are subject to crushing. A lot of ethanol will be wasted out the pump unless you have efficient cold trapping (usually acetone/dry ice slurry) with its own dangers. So, molecular sieves are easier and safer to render 96% ethanol anhydrous. Also bear in mind that anhydrous ethanol will very efficiently soak up moisture from the air and return to the azeotropic state, so to keep it dry, you must handle it using special atmosphere-excluding techniques. Hope this helps... _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck Monitoring Service trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
