Sciencemadness Discussion Board

EtOH from Foaming Hand Sanitizer

Flip - 3-5-2009 at 00:05

So I was walking through the pharmacy yesterday and I couldn't help but notice a product called "Foaming Hand Sanitizer." The bottles appear to have a fair volume of clear liquid that is delivered by a spray nozzle, it's the non-aerosol version. On the label for the bottle it said "62% ethyl alcohol." I imagine that the other ingredients are soap/gel and water. It looks like distillation of this product could yield a fair volume of absolute EtOH at a pretty reasonable price. Looking at the MSDS of a similar product, there do not appear to be any denaturants like MeOH or ketones.. but I don't have all of the information.

Would this product be a viable source of EtOH via distillation?

What are the contents?

[Edited on 5/3/09 by Flip]

bluecurry - 3-5-2009 at 00:32

within the perfuming industry there is a formulation of pure ethyl alcohol which usually will only have a bitterant added to prevent direct abuse.

Most of the preparations are 90-95% ethanol. Goes by perfumers alcohol, you'll probably want to do some research into which preparation has the least amount of adulterants.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=1fb...

has a list of the various formula's for different 'specially' denatured alcohols. Find one that's cheapest and easiest to distil. You can legally order up to 5 gallons of alcohol per year without a permit/license from the ATF.

[Edited on 3-5-2009 by bluecurry]