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JJay
International Hazard
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Registered: 15-10-2015
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Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist  | From the discussion it sounds like distilling ethanol from gasoline is legal (being a mixture), but then if you take that same ethanol and redistill
it for better purity it's now illegal?
Weird. |
Haha. Yeah, pretty much, although it depends on exactly what you are doing. I've personally never distilled any gasoline, but I guess there are lots
of interesting things in it....
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Elemental Phosphorus
Hazard to Others
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I am sorry if any of my posts have come across as rude or disrespectful. I do not mean any disrespect to anyone here. You all know more about
chemistry than I do. I cannot see harm or a safety issue in extracting ethanol from gasoline however. If there was (and inform me if I missed
something) I would not attempt it.
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PirateDocBrown
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I once contemplated extraction of ethanol from E-85 as well.
But I did a bit of research, and found some paint store alcohol that was at least 85% EtOH as well, but the remainder was water, methanol, ethyl
acetate, and likely some bitrex.
Now, to get lab-usable EtOH, I reflux the stuff with some NaOH to hydrolyze the EtOAc, then add some dessicant (can't remember if I used CaCl2 or
MgSO4), and did a simple distill, throwing out the lead fraction.
Excess water was soaked up with K2CO3.
There might be a trace of MeOH in it, but it's pure enough for almost anything I might use it for in the lab. I've even considered using it for
synthesizing ethyl ether, as dimethyl ether and methyl ethyl ether would be lost to the gas phase.
If you want more pure EtOH, find some pure ethyl acetate and hydrolyze it all.
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