Azeotrope - 24-10-2012 at 07:38
Soo hello! Never been to this board ( I didnt know there were others like me!) before and its pretty cool so I figured I'd ask you all.
So here is my problem. I am currently distilling ethanol for drinking, cause I'm Canadian, from simple sugar, yeast, and DI water. When I am
distilling the solution it produces two distinct phases eg. one clear phase, time to wait, second clear phase. No problem here, I assumed the first to
be methanol, and the second to be ethanol.. the trouble is when they are mixed they form a very opaque white solution that can't be filtered out
(tried 4 times) nor distilled out with any ease.
Can anyone shed some light on whats going on here?
Also not sure if this is the right section of the site but it is technically organic chem..
Ephesian - 24-10-2012 at 08:03
simple sugar fermentation shouldn't produce methanol as a byproduct.
bahamuth - 24-10-2012 at 08:21
It may very well be fusel oil, i.e. heavier alcohols/ketones/aldehydes.
Seen similar to what you describe myself, because I'm Norwegian
Edited grammar..
[Edited on 24-10-2012 by bahamuth]