[Gasification] OT Gasification and ethanol production from biomass

[WJ Seidl]

Mark:
It's been done for years. Back yard 190 proof is not uncommon, and an 
easy target.
Go here:
http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/id3.html

Woods indeed! Try your garage!

Best,
WJ Seidl


Mark Ludlow wrote:
> Harmon & List:
> 
> I've made anhydrous, not in my back yard but at the pilot plant scale and
> while it's not rocket science it's not a no-brainer either. First you need
> the alcohol/water azeotrope which is 95% ethanol. Typically this is done at
> reduced pressure of there is a suitable heat sink available to cool a
> condenser or more likely with a distillation column.
> 
>>From here you can employ a molecular sieve such as zeolite to absorb the
> water. Problem is, zeolite adsorbs only about 20% of its mass in water and
> its desorption energy requirement is significant (due to its high cost, it
> must be regenerated a number of times). Better have some high-grade waste
> heat handy.
> 
> The other method that I am familiar with is to use something like toluene
> (methylbenzene) which, while hardly soluble at all in water, forms a lower
> boiling point azeotrope with it allowing it to be stripped from the alcohol.
> 
> Most stills use some form of reflux so the process becomes multiple pass,
> bleed-and-feed.
> 
> Now surely all this could be done in the woods with a coil of copper pipe
> and an iron mash kettle, but if there is some magic kludge that makes
> 200-proof easily I assume that the ethanol industry would have heard of it.
> Maybe suitable membranes for ethanol will be devised. I think that the exist
> for isopropyl alcohol.
> 
> Mark