Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Ethanol Production

Dr.Freemanstein - 24-11-2005 at 17:12

I have been looking into the use of Biodiesel lately, and I have found that is requires ethanol in its production.

In the UK, does anyone know if distilling ethanol for this purpose would be illegal????

wa gwan - 25-11-2005 at 07:29

It requires ethanol OR methanol (which is easier). There is a very large thread on the subject here already.

The laws exist to prevent production of untaxed drinking alcohol so perhaps you could denature your fermented liquor with MeOH before distillation so that you would be distilling an unpalatable/poisonous mixture.

Fleaker - 7-12-2005 at 16:50

It is probably easier to use MeOH when making the Fatty Acid Methyl Esters of your particular oil, however, MeOH would be more expensive to use when making the methoxide with either metallic sodium (preferred) or sodium hydroxide.