A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products — John Shaqi
A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm ProductsWright, F. B. (Frederic B.)
Science
A Practical Handbook on the Distillation of Alcohol from Farm Products
Wright, F. B. (Frederic B.)
Alcohol; Alcohol, Denatured
This, however, is not a clean division for the reason that while in the
beginning the vapors contain a large quantity of the more volatile
alcohol, at the end they will contain a large portion of the less
volatile water. The whole of the alcohol will be separated in this
manner, but it will still be mixed with some water and in order to again
divide the alcohol from the water the first distillate would have to be
redistilled until at last the water is reduced to a minimum or entirely
eliminated, if possible.
But as it requires less heat to vaporize alcohol than water, so it also
requires more cold to condense alcoholic-vapor than water-vapor. If then
we pass the mixed vapors into a condensing chamber cooled to a certain
temperature low enough to condense water-vapor but not the alcohol-vapor,
then the water-vapor will fall down as water while the alcohol-vapor
being uncondensed passes on to another chamber where its temperature
falls to a point where it in turn condenses into liquid.
In intermittent distillation, as by the simple still, the vapors of mixed
alcohol and water at first contain a great deal of alcohol and a little
water, then more water and less alcohol, and then a great deal of water
and hardly any alcohol. It may be asked: "Why not take only the runnings
rich in alcohol and leave the others?" The answer to this is that if this
be done then _all_ the alcohol is not extracted from the wash and there
is just that much loss. The solution of the problem is to get all the
alcohol out mixed with the water that is inevitably with it and then
redistill this result thus getting out (sifting away) some of the water,
and again distill this result, and so on until only pure alcohol is left.
This, however, is a very troublesome business and has been abandoned as a
means of removing impurities such as water, the ethers, and fusel oil
except by makers of whiskey, brandy and other beverage spirits, in favor
of continuous distillation and continuous rectification.
It will be seen from what has gone before that there are two means of
separating alcohol and water; one by an initial difference in heating and
by a further difference in cooling or condensing.
It is on this foundation that the whole art of fractional distillation or
rectification rests. While we have for illustration been considering a
mixture of pure alcohol and water, the wash or liquid formed by the
fermentation of grain, etc., contains a variety of ingredients of
different boiling points, some more volatile than alcohol, some less. The
fermented wash consists first of non-volatile or only slightly volatile
matters, such as salts, proteins, glycerin, lactic acid, yeast, etc., and
second, volatile bodies such as alcohol, water, various ethers, etc.,
fusel oils and acetic acid.
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