Water/Avgas/Gasahol/Mogas

"Jim Weir" wrote:
Two years of college chemistry does not a chemist make out of me, so let's
see
if anybody has the answer to this one:

Until we get around to making gaskets and o-rings that will stand up to
alcohol,
is there a cheap and easy way to chemically (or mechanically) take the
alcohol
out of gasoline? Yeah, I know that we could use fractional distillation,
but
that's a little beyond the average home kitty-litter filter process that I
was
contemplating.

Thoughts?

I guess you're thinking of something like SilcaGel (which has a high
affinity for water), but in this case we need a substance that has a high
affinity for ethanol but none for the hydrocarbons. Sounds like you need an
Irish liver. :-)

No, seriously, you might be able to use some of the laboratory-grade
semi-permiable membranes, if you can find one that passes ethanol-sized
molecules but not aromatic hydrocarbon-sized ones.

Russell Kent

How about using the differential solubility in water? Add water, shake to
dissolve the alochol in the water, allow to seperate, pour off the gasoline.
Lather, rinse, repeat.

Dave

Russell Kent wrote:
"Jim Weir" wrote:

Two years of college chemistry does not a chemist make out of me, so let's

see

if anybody has the answer to this one:

Until we get around to making gaskets and o-rings that will stand up to

alcohol,

is there a cheap and easy way to chemically (or mechanically) take the

alcohol

out of gasoline? Yeah, I know that we could use fractional distillation,

but

that's a little beyond the average home kitty-litter filter process that I

was

contemplating.

Thoughts?


I guess you're thinking of something like SilcaGel (which has a high
affinity for water), but in this case we need a substance that has a high
affinity for ethanol but none for the hydrocarbons. Sounds like you need an
Irish liver. :-)

No, seriously, you might be able to use some of the laboratory-grade
semi-permiable membranes, if you can find one that passes ethanol-sized
molecules but not aromatic hydrocarbon-sized ones.

Russell Kent




--
Dave Butler, software engineer 919-392-4367