Chemgineer - 15-5-2022 at 10:46
I distilled some ethanol sugar wash that I had fermented from sugar, tomato paste, trace amounts of citric acid and magnesium sulfate.
I used one of those water distillers you can buy online as it is bigger than my normal glassware capacity.
The first pass was all fine and I got around 50% ethanol/water.
I then put some of it back through the distiller again to get rid of more water ready to transfer to my fractionating column to get it closed to 95%.
The thing that has confused me though is it came out at 80% but with a distinct yellow colouration, this however gradually faded and returned to
crystal clear over around a week sat in a closed bottle. There is no solids that I can see settling either.
Could this be a result of dissolved gasses in the liquid or something?
Rainwater - 15-5-2022 at 13:13
If you take a sample and let it evaporate, you can then check for residues. Might give you enough to discover what the contamination is/was
An inspection of your apparatus might reveal the source.
HANDBOOK OF PREPARATIVE INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Page 26
For methods of purify