I thought I would pass on the information I received back
from my ' pure silver' list group on the subject of alcohol:
>Garry, I am assuming that you are talking about ethyl
alcohol ( grain alcohol
>or ethanol) when you are refering to alcohol.
>1. Does alcohols contain SALTS?
>2. Was this just sales hype?
>3. What is the MARKER to designate purity in alcohols?
> First, the alcohol should not contain any "salts" when it
is in it's
>commercial form. In order to purify either fermentation
alcohol (made from
>grain, sugar, etc) it is necessary to distill it to
seperate the ethanol
from the water that is present. That distillation will
remove any salts
that may be present. The same process is used in the
preparation of
industrial ethyl alcohol (from ethylene and water in the
presence of a
catalyst) since again excess water needs to be removed to
get to the
commercial product which is 95 0.000000e+00thyl alcohol and 5%
water. This is the
minimum boiling azeotrope so that y'all can not distill
directly to 100%
ethanol. One can play some other tricks to make anhydrous
alcohol, but the
usual product of commerce is 95% (good old 190 proof
Everclear or the like).
Most of the stuff sold for industrial use is rendered unfit
for human
consumption (denatured alcohol) by the addition of other
materials that are
difficult to remove (methyl alcohol, avation gasolene,
napthelene etc) and
are either toxic or make it taste REAL BAD!
In summary, the salts issue sounds like sales hype. Why
market two things
when one product will do??? Industrial alcohol is produded
in vast
quantities at a high purity level and is readily available
There are specifications for various grades of alcohol -
ASTM, USP, ACS
Reagent, etc. and they would probably contain specifications
for purity
(ethanol assay), water content,type and amount of
denatureant used (if any),
color, odor, acidity (this could be a concern for
corrosion), aldehydes, and
residue on evaporation. Depending on the application,
different
specifications from different agencies may apply.
><SNIP>
Hope this has been of help
Best Regards,
Howard F. Efner
2100 Jefferson Rd.
Bartlesville, OK 74006<
hfefner@xxxxxxxxx<<<<<
phone 918.333.7092<
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