stoichiometric_steve
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separating Toluene from the azeotrope with Ethanol
since i'm left with a lot of the azeotrope from solvent recycling, i have yet to find a convenient method to break it up. anybody?
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Phosphor-ing
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You could try 4a molecular sieves to absorb the ethanol. Just a thought.
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evil_lurker
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Add enough water to the azeotrope to cause the toluene to float to the top. Seperate then add some calcium cloride to dry the toluene. The CaCL2 will
form the addition product with any remaning ethanol. Work up the products by distillation.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
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stoichiometric_steve
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Phosphor-ing
You could try 4a molecular sieves to absorb the ethanol. Just a thought. |
with a mole fraction of 80% for ethanol, this would need a ridiculously huge amount of mol sieves.
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Mumbles
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Just out of curiosity, but do you desire both compounds back, or just the toluene? The thought of addition of water, and extraction with hexane or
ether or something crossed my mind, but that probaby just introduces new azeotropes, and is less than efficient. Evil_lurker's suggestion is probably
far better than my half-brained idea, and would be cheaper and less complex.
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evil_lurker
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Well my method works for E85 gasoline.
It just takes a long time and a lot of fractionating to recover the ethanol. I usually shoot for over 90%, then dry it with sieves and redistill.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
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stoichiometric_steve
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evil_lurker, are you using a column to fractionate the EtOH?
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