Ethanol purification

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</wiki/File:Vapor-Liquid_Equilibrium_Mixture_of_Ethanol_and_Water.png>

</wiki/File:Vapor-
Liquid_Equilibrium_Mixture_of_Ethanol_and_Water.png>
</wiki/File:Vapor-Liquid_Equilibrium_Mixture_of_Ethanol_and_Water.png>
</wiki/File:Vapor-Liquid_Equilibrium_Mixture_of_Ethanol_and_Water.png>Vapor-
liquid equilibrium of the mixture of Ethanol and Water (incl. azeotrope
</wiki/Azeotrope>), composition given in molefractions
The product of either ethylene hydration or brewing is an ethanol-water mixture. For
most industrial and fuel uses, the ethanol </wiki/Ethanol> must be purified. Fractional
distillation </wiki/Fractional_distillation> can concentrate ethanol to 95.6% by weight
(89.5 mole%). The mixture of 95.6% ethanol and 4.4% water (percentage by weight) is
an azeotrope </wiki/Azeotrope> with a boiling point of 78.2 °C, and cannot be further
purified by distillation. Because of the difficulty of further purification, 95% ethanol/5%
water is a fairly common solvent. There are several methods used to further purify
ethanol beyond 95.6%:

Contents 1 Drying using lime or a salt 2

Addition of an entrainer 3 Molecular sieves 4
Membranes 5 Pressure Reduction 6 References

[edit </w/index.php?title=Ethanol_purification&action=edit&section=1>] Drying

using lime or a salt
After distillation ethanol can be further purified by "drying" it using lime (calcium oxide)
</wiki/Calcium_oxide> or using a hygroscopic </wiki/Hygroscopic> material such as
rocksalt </wiki/Halite>. When lime is mixed with the water in ethanol, calcium
hydroxide </wiki/Calcium_hydroxide> forms. The calcium hydroxide can then be
separated from the ethanol. Similarly, a hygroscopic material will dissolve some of the
water content of the ethanol as it passes through, leaving a purer alcohol.[1]

[edit </w/index.php?title=Ethanol_purification&action=edit&section=2>] Addition

of an entrainer
The ethanol-water azeotrope can be broken by the addition of a small quantity of benzene
</wiki/Benzene> or cyclohexane </wiki/Cyclohexane>. Benzene, ethanol, and water
form a ternary azeotrope with a boiling point of 64.9 °C. Since this azeotrope is more
volatile than the ethanol-water azeotrope, it can be fractionally distilled out of the
ethanol-water mixture, extracting essentially all of the water in the process. The bottoms
from such a distillation is anhydrous </wiki/Anhydrous> ethanol, with several parts per
million </wiki/Parts_per_million> residual benzene. Benzene is toxic to humans, and
cyclohexane has largely supplanted benzene in its role as the entrainer in this process.
However, this purification method leaves chemical residues which render the alcohol
unfit for human consumption.

[edit </w/index.php?title=Ethanol_purification&action=edit&section=3>] Molecular

sieves
Alternatively, a molecular sieve </wiki/Molecular_sieve> can be used to selectively
absorb the water from the 95.6% ethanol solution. Synthetic zeolite </wiki/Zeolite> in
pellet form can be used, as well as a variety of plant-derived absorbents, including
cornmeal </wiki/Cornmeal>, straw </wiki/Straw>, and sawdust </wiki/Sawdust>. The
zeolite bed can be regenerated essentially an unlimited number of times by drying it with
a blast of hot carbon dioxide </wiki/Carbon_dioxide>. Cornmeal and other plant-derived
absorbents cannot readily be regenerated, but where ethanol is made from grain, they are
often available at low cost. Absolute ethanol produced this way has no residual benzene,
and can be used to fortify port and sherry in traditional winery operations.

[edit </w/index.php?title=Ethanol_purification&action=edit&section=4>]
Membranes
Membranes can also be used to separate ethanol and water. The membrane can break the
water-ethanol azeotrope because separation is not based on vapor-liquid equilibria.
Membranes are often used in the so-called hybrid membrane distillation process. This
process uses a pre-concentration distillation column as first separating step. The further
separation is then accomplished with a membrane operated either in vapor permeation or
pervaporation mode. Vapor permeation uses a vapor membrane feed and pervaporation
uses a liquid membrane feed.
[edit </w/index.php?title=Ethanol_purification&action=edit&section=5>] Pressure
Reduction
At pressures less than atmospheric pressure, the composition of the ethanol-water
azeotrope shifts to more ethanol-rich mixtures, and at pressures less than 70 torr
</wiki/Torr> (9.333 kPa) , there is no azeotrope, and it is possible to distill absolute
ethanol from an ethanol-water mixture. While vacuum distillation of ethanol is not
presently economical, pressure-swing distillation is a topic of current research. In this
technique, a reduced-pressure distillation first yields an ethanol-water mixture of more
than 95.6% ethanol. Then, fractional distillation of this mixture at atmospheric pressure
distills off the 95.6% azeotrope, leaving anhydrous ethanol at the bottoms.

[edit </w/index.php?
title=Ethanol_purification&action=edit&section=6>]
References
^ Mathewson, S.W. (1980). "Drying the Alcohol"
<http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_manual/manual12.html
>. The Manual for the Home and Farm Production of Alcohol Fuel
<http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_manual/manual_ToC.
html>. Ten Speed Press.
<http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_manual/manual12.html
>. Retrieved on 2006-07-01.
Retrieved from "<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_purification>"
Category </wiki/Special:Categories>: Alcohols </wiki/Category:Alcohols>