how to seperate a mixture of water and alcohal?

Question

I don't think I can use distillation cause both will boil together but alcohal will evaporate first then water.

I don't think I can use distillation cause both will boil together but alcohal will evaporate first then water and I can't use evaporation.

Answer 1

put it in the freezer and leave it. the water will freeze and the alcohol won't. that's why good vodka is kept in the freezer...

Answer 2

Two methods will work pretty well: distillation or fractional crystallization. Distillation is controlled boiling -- a mixture of two liquids will boil at a temperature somewhere between the boiling points of the two components. If you place your mixture in a boiling vessel, take the vapor off the top and condense it with a coil of copper tubing and monitor the temperature well, the alcohol will boil off first (it's boiling is what removed the heat that would otherwise allow the water to rise to 100C and boil too) and when the temperature of the mixture rises to 98C or so, you're pretty much done (you'll leave a tiny amount of alcohol in your boiling vessel, but you won't get much water carried over into your distillate. Do this a couple of times and you should have pretty much pure alcohol.

The other way, fractional crystallization, also relies on the different freezing points of the two liquids. Place your mixture in a big container like a carbuoy and freeze it (please leave about 10% of the volume empty, so it somewhere to expand to!!! Better not cap the top very tightly, either) Leave it for a couple of days until you think it would be frozen solid, then turn it upside-down with a length of rubber hose attached to the mouth, directed into a covered container. The pure alcohol will not have frozen, because it has a freezing point of -141C -- that's why people store vodka in the freezer and not have Stoli-pops -- so it will slowly dribble out of the carbuoy over the next day or so. The alcohol won't allow the mixture to freeze solid, so it's kind of like draining the liquid off a Slushee.

Either of these methods work pretty well if you have more than a few percent alcohol by volume in your mixture. Anything less than that, and you'd have to get specialized equipment.

Answer 3

The alcohol would have to be distilled via evaporation (heat, then cool through a coil) in a closed circuit. Since the alcohol has a lower boiling point, it would evaporate before the water.

Thing of a moonshine still like on Dukes of Hazzard.

Answer 4

if the difference in boilling point between the two chemicals is lower than 100C, you will need to to a fractional distillation. However, alcohols can produce azeotropes with water which will cause water to evaporate with the alcohol (i.e. you cannot have 100% ethanol by distillation, maximum is 95%). But you can eliminate excess water by using a dessicant like anhydrous magnesium sulphate, so you will be able to have pure alcohol.

you can also cool the mixture the highest solidifying point and extract the liquid.

before trying to extract the alcohol, you should read the propreties of the specific alcohol you wsih to extract.

Answer 5

If you have a sealed system, you can boil the mixture - the alcohol will evaporate first but will travel up the system and recondense. This is where you place a beaker underneath to catch the alcohol. Distillation should work just fine.

- alcohol has a lower BP which is why it will evaporate off first.

Answer 6

Use a temperature between the boiling point of the alcohol and the boiling point of the water when you distill

Answer 7

I suppose that it depends on which alcohol you are describing, since each has differing boiling points. However, if you are discussing methanol or ethanol, distillation should work as long as you keep the solution's temperature below the boiling point of water.

Answer 8

Evaporate the water using the evaporation process, then the alcohol should be left behind.

Answer 9

it is simple boil the water at 100 degrees C at sea level because water has a lower boiling point than alcohol.

Answer 10

heat it up, alcohol has a lower boiling tempreture than water so it will evaporate before the water does