Bioethanol & Water Mixing: Solve Separation Problem

[Emmanuel74]

I have been on a project for awhile now and it has to do with production of bio ethanol production from biomass,and also how to add water in ratio 60:40. i.e ethanol will be 60% while water will be 40% without separating. I have tried to mix water with ethanol in this ratio but it keeps separating after awhile. What can I do to stop the separation?
Please kindly advice on what to do. Thank you .

 

[Ygggdrasil]

Ethanol is completely miscible with water, meaning that you can mix them in any proportion and form a homogeneous solution. Are you sure that your ethanol is pure and does not have any contaminants that may be separating out? For example, have you checked the density of your ethanol?

 

[jim mcnamara]

Something is not right, as @Ygggdrasil is trying to point out. Ethanol and water always mix, no exceptions. No separations. So, what you have cannot be pure ethanol. There lots of alcohols ( and other partially miscible polyols ) that do not mix completely with water. As above, a density check can verify that what you have is something else. In other words is not pure. The density is easy to derive. Weigh a carefully measured volume. Calculate the density as

$D=\frac{\text {mass}}{\text{volume}}$

Ethanol is .7892 ^g/_ml so accurately weigh (correct to mg) a precise liter of the putative ethanol.

 

[Emmanuel74]

Thank you very much for all your answer. I will definitely do my checking correctly to know where the problem comes from. Thank you very much, am so grateful.

 

[Emmanuel74]

I have been on a project for awhile now and it has to do with production of bio ethanol production from biomass,and also how to add water in ratio 60:40. i.e ethanol will be 60% while water will be 40% without separating. I have tried to mix water with ethanol in this ratio but it keeps separating after awhile. What can I do to stop the separation?
Please kindly advice on what to do. Thank you .

Something is not right, as @Ygggdrasil is trying to point out. Ethanol and water always mix, no exceptions. No separations. So, what you have cannot be pure ethanol. There lots of alcohols ( and other partially miscible polyols ) that do not mix completely with water. As above, a density check can verify that what you have is something else. In other words is not pure. The density is easy to derive. Weigh a carefully measured volume. Calculate the density as

$D=\frac{\text {mass}}{\text{volume}}$

Ethanol is .7892 ^g/_ml so accurately weigh (correct to mg) a precise liter of the putative ethanol.

Something is not right, as @Ygggdrasil is trying to point out. Ethanol and water always mix, no exceptions. No separations. So, what you have cannot be pure ethanol. There lots of alcohols ( and other partially miscible polyols ) that do not mix completely with water. As above, a density check can verify that what you have is something else. In other words is not pure. The density is easy to derive. Weigh a carefully measured volume. Calculate the density as

$D=\frac{\text {mass}}{\text{volume}}$

Ethanol is .7892 ^g/_ml so accurately weigh (correct to mg) a precise liter of the putative ethanol.

Thank you very much for your response.