Here is something I«d never try, specially in a motor (unless you want to run the risk of clogging it to death), but I found an interesting reference as to how to dehydrate alcohol and test it:
The abstract is from "Henley«s Twentieth Century FORMULAS Processes & Trade Secrets", Books Inc, NY, 1957, by Prof. T O«Conor Sloane, A.B., A.M., E.M., Ph.D.. Yes, it«s as old as hell, and half the formulas it contains would probably considered herecy by E.P.A., but it still is interesting: "Absolute Alcohol.- If gelatine be suspended in ordinary alcohol, it will absorb the water, but as it is insoluble in alcohol, that substance will remain behibd, and thus nearly absolute alcohol will be obtained without distillation." As to the methods for testing: "Alcohol, Tests for Absolute.- the comittee for the compilation of the German Arzneibuch established the following tests for determination of absolute alcohol: Absolute alcohol is clear, colorless, volatile, readily inflammable liquid which burns with a faintly luminous flame. Absolute alcohol has a particular odour, a burning taste, and does not affect litmus paper. Boiling point, 78.50. Specific gravity, 0.795 to 0.797. One hundred parts contain 99.6 to 99.0 parts, by weight, of alcohol. Absolute alcohol should have no foreign smell and should mix with water without cloudiness. After the admixture of 5 drops of silver-nitrate solution, 10 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol should not become turbid or coloured even on heating. A mixture of 10 cubic centimetres of absolute alcohol and 0.2 cubic centimeter of potash lye evaporated down to 1cubic centimeter should not exhibit an odour of fusel oil after supersaturation with dilute sulphuric acid. Five cubic centimeters of sulphuric acid, carefully covered, in a test tube, with a stratum of 5 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol, should not form a rose colored zone at the surface of contact, even on standing for some time. The red color of a mixture of 10 cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol and 1 cubic centimeter of potassium-permanganate solution should not pass into yellow before 20 minutes. Absolute alcohol should not be dyed by hydrogen sulphide water or by aqueous ammonia. Five cubic centimeters of absolute alcohol should not leave behind a weighable residue after evaporation on water bath." Be warned, most (if not all) of the chemicals mentioned are dangerous and must be handled with care. The methods described come back from 1957, and as others in the book, are probably outdated by modern, safer methods. Be careful when experimenting. Personally, I tried the potassium-permanganate test after treating 96% EtOH with tasteless jello, and I really can«t tell for sure if it worked, as the color was a faint orange (not yellow, not pink or red). I did smell the "so called absolute alcohol" and my throat is still stinging (30 minutes after). Finally, I wouldn«t recommend this process, as any water mixed in the EtOH CAN form jelly, which at room/low temperatures is almost impossible to clean (mild/warm/hot water does the job OK). The point is, any jelly left in the alcohol (although if well filtered shouldn«t be present) would cause an awful lot of sugar to deposit/clog (and ruin) a motor. On the other hand, maybe doing things slowly and carefully solves the matter. I have no way of testing all this, so feel free to send comments. Thinking out loud, possibly the hydrated jelly could be dried and reused (?)... dunno. Please tell me if anyone has a trust-worthy lab method to test Absolute EtOH and has found this method works. Regards, Christian [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Tiny Wireless Camera under $80! Order Now! FREE VCR Commander! Click Here - Only 1 Day Left! http://us.click.yahoo.com/WoOlbB/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
