As some of you may or may not know, there is a new product that is buzzing about the internet that is due to be released in the fall of 2014 to liquor
stores near you. It is.. powdered alcohol.
The name of the company is Palcohol and while the company claims that they will have to kill you if they divulged to you their trade secret in its
manufacture; a patent is pending.
At first I thought this was a late april fools joke, but after researching it, Palcohol seems legit.
Any idea how this is accomplished? HgDinis25 - 20-4-2014 at 07:59
Cyclodextrin, I believe. It absorbs the alcohol, making a powdered and, when mixed with water, dissolves away releasing the alcohol.
Seems like an awful idea/waste of cyclodextrins to me personally. That's also what I was thinking.Etaoin Shrdlu - 20-4-2014 at 08:00
Tapioca maltodextrin, something similar, or microencapsulation.
Or a joke.
EDIT: Beaten to the punch. Cyclodextrins seem more likely from a design standpoint.
[Edited on 4-20-2014 by Etaoin Shrdlu]hissingnoise - 20-4-2014 at 08:15
Fucking great! Can't wait to snort a line . . . or ten . . .
HgDinis25 - 20-4-2014 at 08:23
Haha, interesting way to obtain pure cyclodextrin. Wonder if it has any interesting uses to the home chemist.
Not going to be a pure source.
HoH - 20-4-2014 at 09:08
I don't know that it will be pure as it appears the company intends on selling it diluted so people do not mix it with coke thinking they can blow a
rum and coke. HgDinis25 - 20-4-2014 at 09:31
I don't know that it will be pure as it appears the company intends on selling it diluted so people do not mix it with coke thinking they can blow a
rum and coke.
Haha, true.
Probably they're going to cut it with something.
Or they're going to denaturate it so the smell of it when inspired is unbearable but disapears upon dissolution.S.C. Wack - 20-4-2014 at 13:20
In case you haven't seen it already, a company has been cleared to market powdered alcohol (ethanol in this case) under the trade name Palcohol. The
obvious question is, how does one powder ethanol?
The official website does not list the ingredients and the only information I can find on the topic is the Wikipedia page on the topic, which is not very enlightening. In particular it looks like the complex shown would only be able to powder alcohol to
a few percent by weight, but wikipedia and the product claim that it can absorb ~58% by weight.
How is this possible, and can it be done by amateur chemists?
[Edited on 23-4-2014 by Oscilllator]rannyfash - 10-5-2014 at 14:28
There's a patent somewhere online regarding it, 60% by weight ethanol, 5-15 DE length dextrin, less than 4% water to remain a free flowing powdersmaerd - 10-5-2014 at 19:18
That's a pretty impressive mass ratio of alcohol to dextrin. I really was not expecting that much. Just by eyeballing I was thinking more like 10%.
Here is the patent you are referring too. Neat stuff.
Thunderf00t recently made a video about this, and the more he examined the powdered alcohol, the dumber it got. By weight, powder alcohol is an
impressive 51% ethanol, but by volume, powdered alcohol is only 12% alcohol, so, if hissingnoise where to snort it, he would have the same blood
alcohol content if he sniffed/drank 100ml of wine/powder alcohol. That's a lot of powder to sniff, especially when you could simply drink the wine to
the same effect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c0QLaVLhTschemrox - 23-5-2014 at 14:51
This is hardly a new idea. I hope they don't get a patent. A big pharma applied for one for using a common herb medicinally. Herbalists have used
it for millennia. Anyway, a geology professor of mine brought the stuff to a staff party to spike the punch. Trust geologists to find new ways to
spike punch. rannyfash - 30-8-2014 at 14:04
its all idiotic but attracts a strange sort of respect
edit: he used N-Zorbit and 192 proof/96% alcohol
i dont like the idea as eating alot of maltodextrin could lead to large blood sugar spikes, maltodextrin has a GI of 130, surpassing pure glucose at
100 and sugar at 65, too much will lead to diabetes
[Edited on 30-8-2014 by rannyfash]manomanom - 19-9-2014 at 14:59
Seems like it would lead to more chance of a hangover, not only from all that sugar, but cyclodextrin 'or sugar circles'
increases the bio-availability of things that wouldn't usually cross into the bloodstream, so more toxins to clean out.
