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Author: Subject: making colorless ethanol
Lambda-Eyde
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[*] posted on 30-3-2010 at 16:25


Quote: Originally posted by Jor  

But it has a strong blue color, and it stinks.
What is the easiest way to remove these? I know of the activated charcoal method, but that most of the time will make a very fine suspension of the carbon in the liquid. This is bothersome to filter, and besides, because I do not have vaccuum, filtering takes a long time for me.


I have used activated charcoal to render blue isopropanol colorless. The way I did it was that I used a plastic tube with 1-hole stoppers in each end, with ~2 cm cotton plugs at bottom and top and activated charcoal in between. A funnel was inserted in one end, while the other end pointed down in a graduated cylinder. The alcohol was completely colorless after the treatment, and contained no suspended particles at all. There is some loss of alcohol because some is retained in the charcoal, but in a 1L run this was less than 30 mL. I used less than 10 cm of activated charcoal (ID of the plastic tube was approx. 2 cm). I don't know how effective it is at removing methanol, pyridine, etc however. Probably not.

Sure, it takes a while, but why don't you read a good chemistry book while you're waiting? ;)
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Runningbear
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[*] posted on 6-4-2010 at 20:37


Why not just make your own reflux still and brew your own. Make the still once and you've got ethanol for life.
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