So how do I get all the water out of Everclear?

[nakedfrog]

What is the reason you want to do this?

 

[shortylickens]

Pure alcohol evaporates quickly. Thats why its mixed with water.
Yur gonna need a science lab inside a refrigerator.

Or just give up on your nonsense.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Why do I feel like we shouldn't be encouraging the OP?

Because that's where all the truly epic threads come from.

 

[zinfamous]

You just uh, boil it. that's how it works!

collect pure alcohol drops in a suspended watch glass above your boiling apparatus.

 

[zinfamous]

Pure alcohol evaporates quickly. Thats why its mixed with water.
Yur gonna need a science lab inside a refrigerator.

Or just give up on your nonsense.

just the opposite: it actually absorbs free water vapor in the surrounding air. For "critical" applications (lol--they never are), we have to re-aliquot our 100% EtOH supply in the molecular lab because as soon as you open the damn lid, you assume the EtOH is now roughly ~98% and eventually gets down to 95% with repeated opening and closing.

 

[crashtech]

I've used activated alumina to remove water from distilled solvent, but I don't know if using alumina would be suitable for anything potable or not.

 

[WelshBloke]

So I guess it's pertinent to understand whether the OP wants this to drink, or to poison/burn.

We need to know this.

Mainly to know if we have to convince the OP to video himself.

 

[MongGrel]

What's the difference between 'pure ethanol' and '100% denatured alcohol'? I suspect the OP wasn't trying to increase the concentration (toxicity?) of Everclear to drink it.

I'm kind of curious WTF the OP is trying to accomplish myself.

 

[Thebobo]

Powdered alcohol Palcohol has no water.

 

[norseamd]

Everclear is like 190 proof, so 95% methanol. However, that's not good enough. I want to get the water out of it so it is 199%+ proof. Don't ask the reason. How would one go about that?

Thanks!

By distilling it.

 

[norseamd]

even if you order lab grader 99.9% that has no denaturing it will drop to 95% the moment you leave it exposed to air for more then about 30 seconds

Wait, how does this work?

 

[zinfamous]

OK, I just realized that OP claimed that he wants to "purify" his 95% methanol. ...I seemed to have walked over something very important here.

I have changed my advice. OP: whether or not it's 5%, 20%, 30%, 95% or 100% methanol, it is going to have the same effect on you. I would suggest that you test it out, but then I would get banned for wishing death on a member.

 

[zinfamous]

Wait, how does this work?

Pure ethanol absorbs every little bit of ambient water that it can find. Simply exposing it to air will suck in any available moisture from the immediate environment, and it happens very quickly.

We tend to keep "100%" in small aliquots (15-40ml) so that it can be regularly replaced and so that it limits exposure time. Either way, you just assume that it is actually somewhere between 95%-98%

 

[Anubis]

Wait, how does this work?

it absorbs water out of the surrounding atmosphere

 

[Humpy]

OK, I just realized that OP claimed that he wants to "purify" his 95% methanol. ...I seemed to have walked over something very important here.

I have changed my advice. OP: whether or not it's 5%, 20%, 30%, 95% or 100% methanol, it is going to have the same effect on you. I would suggest that you test it out, but then I would get banned for wishing death on a member.

Technically, it's not wishing death, it's science.

I'll allow it.

 

[norseamd]

it absorbs water out of the surrounding atmosphere

My brain still has trouble comprehending it works that fast, even after zinfamous explained it to me. Seems like it should take hours at the very fastest.

 

[WelshBloke]

OK, I just realized that OP claimed that he wants to "purify" his 95% methanol. ...I seemed to have walked over something very important here.

I have changed my advice. OP: whether or not it's 5%, 20%, 30%, 95% or 100% methanol, it is going to have the same effect on you. I would suggest that you test it out, but then I would get banned for wishing death on a member.

Well he might not die.

He might just go blind. Or mad... well madder anyway.

One of the treatments for methanol ingestion is whisky, which is cool.

 

[zinfamous]

Well he might not die.

He might just go blind. Or mad... well madder anyway.

One of the treatments for methanol ingestion is whisky, which is cool.

even better: an EtOH IV drip, which is how the ER would handle it.

...okay, well whiskey is probably more pleasant, but I'm not sure if it's as effective.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

My brain still has trouble comprehending it works that fast, even after zinfamous explained it to me. Seems like it should take hours at the very fastest.

Chemistry can be fast. Very, very fast.

 

[Anubis]

a formula for the absorption rate of H2O by ethanol prob exists on google.

 

[zinfamous]

Chemistry can be fast. Very, very fast.

Google: "potassium rock in lake video"

 

[WelshBloke]

even better: an EtOH IV drip, which is how the ER would handle it.

...okay, well whiskey is probably more pleasant, but I'm not sure if it's as effective.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2617997.stm

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/WHISKY+CURE+FOR+METHS+DRINKERS.-a060280820

 

[Thump553]

At home? You can't, and even if you could it would just absorb water vapour from the air.

This. I used to work in a liquor bottling plant. We used to have to test the nominally 200 proof grain alcohol when it came in, it was never 200-usually around 195.

BTW, OP you DON'T want pure alcohol, believe me. I smuggled out a few gallons of pure alcohol, had a wild party at my dorm and only went through part of one gallon. But from hangovers the next day (universally reported as worst-ever, rather be dead) we went through a lot of brain cells. Everclear is more than strong enough-there are a lot of states where it can't be sold.

 

[zinfamous]

This. I used to work in a liquor bottling plant. We used to have to test the nominally 200 proof grain alcohol when it came in, it was never 200-usually around 195.

BTW, OP you DON'T want pure alcohol, believe me. I smuggled out a few gallons of pure alcohol, had a wild party at my dorm and only went through part of one gallon. But from hangovers the next day (universally reported as worst-ever, rather be dead) we went through a lot of brain cells. Everclear is more than strong enough-there are a lot of states where it can't be sold.

This is why we avoid hiring undergrads in the lab.

 

[zinfamous]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2617997.stm

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/WHISKY+CURE+FOR+METHS+DRINKERS.-a060280820

Well, I'm surprised that the Scottish person didn't already have a default titration of whisky in their bloodstream high enough to counteract methanol ingestion.