Joe,
There doesn't seem to be any majik bullet for this.
The rate of diffusion is related to the kintetic energy (or vapor
pressure?) of the ethanol, its concentration, and the surface area it is
diffusing through.
I wonder if the problem extracting ethanol from wine is that it only
represents 12 - 13% by volume. as concentration of ethanol drops/water rises
that azeotropic deal becomes more of a factor.
It may be necessary to first distill the alcohol ..... 50%, 60%, 80% ??
Then dry it with the castor oil screen.
If so, the picture that is starting to develop is not a pretty one:
A. Fermentation ..... distill ferment ..... castor oil screen allows
recovery of some anhydrous ethanol.
At some point ethanol conc. drops "screening" is no longer feasible.
B. Return "exhausted" ethanol/water mix to the still along with next
ferment.
Thanks for the time and effort you are putting in. I think that
ultimately, the successful production of energy on a small-scale, and hence
local level ..... intergrated with sustainable farming, will include ethanol
production.
Now go have a drink.
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Street
To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 9:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Ethyl Esters (was Making Methanol)
Hi Tom
Well I put a couple of bottles of my hooch in a flask and dumped enough
castor oil on top to form a layer about 2cm thick. Heated to 60 degrees C and
started to nod off while waiting for something to happen. So I went to bed and
left the hot plate on overnight......well in the morning......I crept
downstairs....full of anticipation, like a child on Chritmas morning
and......there was this collosal.....huge.......disappointment. There was
nothing interesting. Even though I had crossed my heart and hoped to die. So I
reduced the oil layer to about 2mm to try again. It is stormy here today and
the temperature controller I am using is digital and uses pulse control for
power modulation with a solid state relay. I didn't feel comfortable leaving
the experiment running while I went to work in case of a surge on the
electrical which could result in the loss of the relay and the hot plate then
running full blast so I shut it down. I'll try again over the weekend if I
can. It looks like the diffusion rate of alcohol through the castor oil is
depressingly slow. It may still work though but may require a lot of time. If
so it might be a candidate for some type of solar heated affair that you just
let sit for days. Dunno. It's no majik bullet at least. Maybe seives is still
the best bet. Haven't tried corn grits yet either....
Joe
Thomas Kelly wrote:
Joe,
What's the word?
I've had my fingers, eyes,and heart (?) crossed for days now .....
on the edge of my seat, "waiting a shivers" for the results of the castor oil
screen/ pinot noir experiment. My fingers and eyes are holding up but my heart
is starting to cramp up.
Encouraging? Discouraging? Inconclusive?
If I recall correctly, any response with the term bat guano in it
means
"Sorry, I don't want to talk about it."
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Street
To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 10:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Ethyl Esters (was Making Methanol)
Hi Tom;
Yes you got the idea I am thinking about. I worked a bit on the setup
last night. I've got some old pinot noir I made a few years back ( which is a
difficult grape at the best of times) which is a bout a 0000 on the dryness
scale. I'll take a bottle or two and put it in a flask and pour in some castor
oil which will float on the surface. Since the flask narrows at the top it
won't take too much castor oil to form the barrier layer. I'll heat to just
below the boiling point and see what happens. Perhaps the alcohol molecules
will drag some water with them as you said. The only way to know is to find
out. In the very least I'll have some high potency ethanol for making herbal
tinctures. If I'm lucky I'll have dry ethanol!! Fingers crossed, eyes crossed,
heart crossed, hoping to find out.....
Tirah
Joe
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