How to make anhydrous ethanol (100% alcohol)

[@1HeartCell]

Also known in labs as "the good stuff".

[@subhrodeepsaha9245]

Absolutely right! 👍👌

[@eurovision50]

Omg, totally, haha! I have fond memories of my lab ethanol and diet coke days.

[@eurovision50]

@@abhishaiyasonaimuthu9131 Me and my lab partners certainly did, haha!

[@stephensteele3553]

@@abhishaiyasonaimuthu9131 pretty common actually. My partners and I have a set of very small breakers that are only used for consumption. We would never use them otherwise because they are too small to be useful for us. Anyway, we keep absolute ethanol that has no bittering agents in hand for various extractions. When we've had a good day, we all take a shot.

[@imamgiuseppe5103]

Cabinet 9 on the left

[@SIStefanov]

When I was in highschool I was in a chemistry club. I joined due to a girl I liked. Chemistry was fun and obv. I still love it, but my work is unrelated to the field. One time we had the task to ferment some grapes into a sort of wine then seperate the alcohol and later further destill it into 100% ethanol. This was a whole semester wide project that took many sessions time and effort on the whole club (6 people incl. the teacher). I remember very clearly when we had the 100% ethanol and how happy we were to achieve our goal. I remember filtering the ethanol with the m. sieves through a coffee filter. I remember washing the sieves with distilled water. I remember realising that I just dilluted the batch to less then 50% and so destroyed two weeks of work. That day I realized that I am just slightly, but definitively a moron.

[@jonathanodude6660]

do americans not use vacuum filters or what?

[@DreStyle]

You tried and learned... Don't call yourself a moron... You never make such a mistake again... Its just a learning process.. Its good you saw your mistake but don't ever say you are a moron... 😉

[@ramlover33]

Should have realized you’re a moron if you were willing to join a club just because of a girl

[@DimT670]

Man you did cool stuff in class. We just had a teacher explain chemistry as dry as if it was math

[@gangeshkurmi9966]

That is some fun experiment. At my school safety was not taken that seriously though. We did the carbylamine reaction once, and produced a lot of isocyanide. Had to stay out of the lab for a whole day after that, but it was fun.

[@mjallen1308]

I’m so glad I found this! I’ve been needing to make 100% ethanol as well for no reason. I don’t have any of the equipment or the money to buy any of the ingredients, including the ethanol, but it’s good to have the instructions on hand just in case.

[@xNathan2439x]

You ever get around to it l? Can I borrow 5 dollars yet?

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

A bottle of Everclear is ~$20.

[@FunctionallyLiteratePerson]

​​@@toughenupfluffy7294I'm pretty sure everclear is 95% which is the percentage nigel starts at

[@Outlawstar0198]

Any luck??

[@PrimumQualia]

What about now?

[@Scott.E.H]

Finally, a drink strong enough for Norse Gods.

[@rogueanuerz]

101%

[@iambumbo7534]

*demoman wants to know the whiskey*

[@PLF...]

Aged for a thousand years

[@trevornorton2531]

See you in Valhalla I am going to drink the whole bottle

[@OkieDokieSmokie]

@Vanargand Don't bother with him. He can't formulate a proper sentence so you know he's definitely not white and obviously trolling.

[@Diegovnia]

My pharmacy sells 95% alcohol... [Laughs in Polish where literally every corner shop sells 95% alcohol]

[@jjbulik]

As a Polish I drank 95% spirit one too many times 😂 I burnt my oesophagus and now I have stomach ulcers 😅

[@Diegovnia]

@Dennis Young What's shellac?

[@felipechujoza9755]

@Dennis Young Nah, the reason for having 95% alcohol in almost every store is definitely not shellac. Personally, I use it for this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalewka

[@skill3472]

Siema byq

[@rootbeerconnoisseur]

I'm sure in Poland, 95% alcohol is available in every corner drugstore, but in the US, it's a little hard to come by.

[@ContextEffects]

0:16 Fun fact, undergraduate labs sometimes include additives that make anyone who would attempt to ingest the alcohol puke it up faster than they would with actual alcohol, so at the undergrad level it wouldn't necessarily be 100% anyway, azeotrope or no azeotrope.

[@mattmoy2000]

At least that's what they tell the undergrads...

[@Kricnit]

100% ethanol is poisonous.

[@gandalf8216]

@@mattmoy2000 Feed some to the class mascot gerbil, observe the results.

[@Michael-ze1yn]

Fun fact, you can get drunk off most alcohols. Propanol, butanol, isopropyl, you name it. Moreover, as the number of carbons increases, the more intense the drunk feeling is. 1 ounce of isopropyl could have you floored in 30-60 minutes. Then of course there is methanol which metabolizes to formate and destroys the optic nerve among other things.

[@intensecutn]

@@DingDingTheKZbinBuddy one tastes much worse than the other.

[@kdawg3484]

Chemical engineer here. First of all, great clear and quick explanation of azeotropic distillation even though you opted not to use that method. I rarely, if ever, see it explained so clearly in my engineering books. A couple things worth noting: 1) Mole sieves are the pretty much the best nonreactive way to get contaminants to the lowest possible percentages if they're applicable to the situation. 3A is perfect for removing water as it doesn't fit almost any other molecules except H2O into the pores. However, mole sieves have much lower capacities in exchange for their high adsorptivity. 5% water is probably too much for a mole sieve I thought up front, but I was pleasantly surprised that you were able to adsorb all that water in just two treatments. At higher volumes, though, mole sieves would become uneconomical. Great for keeping your ethanol dry, though, in storage as you're doing. In engineering practice at larger volumes, using only adsorption, it's most cost effective to use alumina first as a cheaper bulk adsorbent for water, then polish the last remaining bits of water out with mole sieves. Both can be regenerated with heat. Silica gel is another possible adsorbent that can be regenerated, but you'd have to check your gel's affinity for water over ethanol just to be sure it'll work. Adsorption is a very versatile separation method as long you do your adsorbent homework. 2) There are a lot of other ways of "breaking" azeotropes listed in the Wikipedia "Azeotrope" article. Changing the distillation pressure will usually change the azeotropic temperature and composition allowing you to get past the atmospheric azeotrope. Apparently, that pressure swing effect won't work for ethanol-water, but it's viable for other mixtures. Using selective membranes will also work. There are many other methods. Obviously, not all will work for all types of mixtures or be viable at lab scale. I just wanted to expand upon your point of showing that there are a lot of other interesting separation processes, both physical and chemical, that we use after good ole distillation reaches its limits.

[@Psyleidoscope]

modified Corn grits are used in industry to dry 50% of ethanol in the midwest usa. like 3a sieves, they are regenerated in the column, and are reused for many cycles.

[@BillAnt]

I'm not so sure if any denaturants will be left over during distillation... at least in the US they use additives such as Pyridine, and Methanol to make it poisonous, Denatonium Benzoate as a bitterant, and sometimes even a bit of acetone makes it in there (mostly in Isopropyl rubbing alcohol). The addition of Toluene to form an azeotrope to decrease the distillation temperate is interesting. I'm just wondering if any of the Toluene might escape into the distillate, therefore fractional distillation might be necessary. By the way, denaturants are added to prevent drinking it, AND to collect tax on drinkable ethanol.

[@F3Ibane]

Great, now the word "adsorb" looks weird.

[@ethelana9627]

Chemical engineering is fascinating

[@JustinKoenigSilica]

What's alumina?

[@jonathandemiguel1458]

You missed some ethanol at the filter. Try washing it with a bit of distilled water!

[@yeetusfetus8687]

LOL

[@adelbudeiri9547]

😂😂

[@ElectricGun100]

I did that and the whole thing exploded

[@occhiolista]

thanks for the advice bro

[@getmeoutofsanfrancisco9917]

Lol there is a story in the comments of dude doing exactly this in his high school chemistry class and realizing just how much he fucked up

[@sandygehrmann6309]

Take a shot of ethanol every time he says "sieves"

[@BillAnt]

Also for "molecular". ;D

[@abdullahwaris1275]

Thank you for your suggestion. Also unrelated but you got any spare liver someone could borrow?

[@High_Lord_Of_Terra]

Seevs

[@rubywest5166]

C’vs

[@isodoubIet]

Sieve Palpatine

[@StrokeMahEgo]

alright gentlemen we have pure ethanol, time to get wasted!

[@gibbyace5077]

***** FUN!

[@StrokeMahEgo]

+Eddie1967 party pooper

[@StrokeMahEgo]

+Eddie1967 haha I already know that 100% is something to be avoided. people have enough issues with the lower concentrations anyway...

[@Kami.Smoke.420]

+Eddie1967 i love drinking Bacardi 151 strait but it supper fucked my stomach- cant hold down food now with out feeling like im about to puke- death Isn't the only negative possibility So those if you that can afford to drink more of the more diluted liquor do it vs 80% pure I drank a pint a day for a year But because i was broke and it was the strongest cheapest liquor If i could afford 4 pints of jin a day that would be way less harmful

[@bjbseperd]

fucked up if true

[@vertical7747]

My brother drank the fortnite juice under the sink and now he won’t wake up

[@coolguyrecords3553]

Kek

[@lslngb6034]

Bottom

[@kill3rbamb146]

Lol

[@donjonpapi7493]

That’s an epic win 😎

[@yoursexualizedgrandparents6929]

Now you get the PlayStation 24/7 😎

[@mrfushiante]

I just realized how old this video is... this is being filmed in his dads garage lol im so happy his parents were so supportive of him... bc look how far hes come and where hes at today! thx mom n dad

[@georgedowson2987]

Molecular sieve dust can interfere with reactions, and the sieves do effectively gobble up a good chunk of your solvent (as you can't fully drain the flask). If you're going to distill the ethanol anyway, there is a better route that does remove ALL the water (down to undetectable levels - sieves can't quite get there and a small amount of water will be released towards the end of the distillation if you end up distilling it dry). Put your azeotropic ethanol (or sieve-dried ethanol!) into a beaker, add a lump of sodium (sufficient to react with the water present), wait for it to dissolve, and then distill the resulting mixture. The sodium lump will immobilise the water into sodium hydroxide, allowing you to distill the solvent mixture to dryness (don't do this at a large scale, as dangerous contaminants may collect - but for lab scale there's no issue). Excess sodium will form sodium ethoxide, which is a water scavenger itself (it reacts with water to generate ethanol and sodium hydroxide). If you want to do this process at large scale (check local law!), you want the benzene pressure-swing process. It's not regeneratable but it will give you analytically pure ethanol. You can store it over some magnesium turnings, which can be used in the place of the sodium if you like - although this route needs a crystal of iodine to activate the magnesium [breaks through the oxide layer] before you start. So really it depends on how well-stocked your lab is!

[@dtomanbay]

You're cool I love you

[@saruultsend-ayush5640]

Thanks Walt

[@AbiRizky]

Okay Mr White

[@codycooper5768]

yeah mister white! yeah, science, bitch!

[@RicardoMontania]

Based chemist

[@cbfull]

I really love your experiments!! I just wanted to share some things I’ve learned about sieves. Molecular sieves will slowly pull air molecules into their pores as they sit. It is generally best to freshly bake the sieves before using them. This drives the gases out of the pores and allows the water molecules to be literally pulled directly into them. It’s essentially a vacuum that adds a lot of extra pull. You can demonstrate this by sealing freshly baked sieves in a plastic container, and as the air is absorbed, the plastic container will collapse. If you don’t use freshly regenerated sieves, you have to wait for the air molecules to get driven out (displaced), which adds a significant amount of time to the solvent drying process.

[@erikisberg3886]

Thank You, I did not know that! Makes sense.

[@edlibey8177]

Thank you for the video. Something I have had to explain myself and you did a good job. I worked at a chemical plant. We ran a reaction with 99.5% ethanol. We bought the ethanol in rail car quantities. Water would react in the place of ethanol as you mentioned. Other alcohols would also react in place of the ethanol so we could not use ethanol denatured with other alcohols. Our ethanol was denatured with toluene which was inert in our process and was stripped off later in the process. Just a note, a lot of ethanol is denatured by a mix of methanol and isopropyl alcohol about 0.5% each. A small fore cut on your distillation removes the methanol but, by distilling to dryness you left the isopropyl in the ethanol. You would probably need a good still with a reflux column to really get all the other alcohols out.

[@btyt152]

Legend says it still wasn’t strong enough for the Russians and the scots

[@taraswertelecki3786]

It's strong enough for Russians to drink themselves to death on it. More Russians die of acute alcohol poisoning in one day than Americans do in a year. That is how bad the problem is of Russians drinking themselves to death.

[@kratos6412]

or the irish

[@kokoslegend4850]

@@kratos6412 nah Russians drink *vodka*

[@nilocrekkab3112]

@@kokoslegend4850 vodka is just ethanol and water

[@kokoslegend4850]

@@nilocrekkab3112 yes true

[@magicstix0r]

How nerds make moonshine...

[@stevenspall8257]

+magicstix0r At 100% that isn't moonshine. That's liquid fire.

[@tomothanrahan4467]

+steven spall would you be able to drink that

[@stevenspall8257]

Technically yes. Ever clear is 95% and it has a warning that says not to drink it straight, but I've seen people so it anyway. Personally I can't handle it. It burns to much. But if you can handle the burn, yeah.

[@Window_Hero]

I'll give an actual answer two years later. One major thing they add to ethanol to keep you from drinking it is methanol, and while it is possible to remove methanol, he didn't take the necessary steps to do that, so this probably wouldn't be safe for drinking.

[@Swizler]

WindowHero and another point added 2 years and 6 days later, drinking 100% ethanol is very dangerous. Your typical bar hop 6-7 shots would probably land you in a hospital unless you have some God like tolerance. Your typical shot would only hold 35-40 %. So, using as little math as possible, 1 shot 100% is roughly the same potency as 3 shots of Grey Goose.

[@Jazz-ji9zu]

Another of your experiments that I cant wait to try! Thanks for always providing great projects and fun things we can try at home with just a little bit of effort! My clear wood continues to impress people and I intend to try it again soon. Thanks again, NileRed!

[@Alien0P]

2019: Let's use the alcohol to make moonshine 2020: Let's use the alcohol to make hand sanitizer

[@0q2628]

Let's use the hand sanitizer to make moonshine

[@apismellifera1906]

_roman420 that one dumbass who hoarded thousands of hand sanitizer to resell on amazon but rejected can do that for sure

[@alysacountryman4982]

how do y’all even understand this i am so confused

[@apismellifera1906]

Snarky . Live they seized his hand sanitizer? That’s beyond satisfying

[@StormsparkPegasus]

I know this was a joke but you actually don't want to go above 60% for hand sanitizer, >60% is less effective.

[@thestealthtarget]

There is a third method as well, which is pressure swing distillation. After reaching 95%, take that mixture and do a high pressure (10 bar) distillation, and the ethanol will come off the top at nearly 100%.

[@myplateisempty.4292]

I just woke up and I misread the title as "androgynous ethanol". It made me laugh a full 2 seconds.

[@OatmealTheCrazy]

Glad I wasn't the only one 😂

[@Luna-Lux]

Obsessed

[@BillAnt]

You were pretty close, if you drink 100% alcohol it will turn you androgynous. ha-ha

[@OatmealTheCrazy]

@@BillAnt God I wish

[@RegularTetragon]

@@BillAnt brb gonna go chug some 200 proof

[@colinoverton8897]

An excellent video. More than 40 years ago I used to share a lab with someone who regularly had to produce 100% ethanol so that he could make a metallic compound that was very sensitive to water, also air. He used the magnesium method, and used to say that it was one of the more difficult experimental manipulations he had to do in obtaining his PhD. Grignard reagents are of course one of the standard ways of alkylating anything, particularly if you can't buy pure alkyl lithiums.

[@pirobot668beta]

There is a hybrid distillation technique using glycerol. Pass the ethanol vapors through hot glycerol; the ethanol passes right on by, the water hangs out to party!! Glycerol is easily swapped out & dried.

[@gazzarrr666]

Nice idea. I'll have to try that.

[@runakovacs4759]

Reminds me of purifying hydrogen gas with Pd.

[@donb2527]

Man the shit I learn on youtube... really makes me regret not taking chemistry education

[@BigBodyBiggolo]

Wow so you could add this as a part of your moonshine set up? Like into a second thumper?

[@ruediix]

Not 100% but will get more than 95%.

[@bryanwashere5010]

We buy pure ethanol from a grow equipment supplier and it's priced just about the same as Everclear (which has the 5% water). Might not strike one as a place to get something like that, but I'd check if you have a place like that near by.

[@nadurtha8536]

Incredibly clear explanation of Azeotropic solutions, often taught awkwardly. Thank you.

[@SuperZorark]

i like how youtube recommended this since ethanol products are scarce in our market... or they are just listening to my home conversations

[@Respondifyourbadattrolling]

@Petr Říha they are

[@getmeoutofsanfrancisco9917]

Ethanol products are scarce? Where do you live?

[@SuperZorark]

Middle East

[@matouskolator40]

I have a lot of useless plants on my garden and a hungry racecar. Thanks for saving me the time to research this 👌

[@duckbilldaniel]

best chemistry channel i've seen. Good work. You earned a Sub.

[@Yeshuaschosen]

Ever clear is what I buy when I need to mix up some shellac for a non toxic wood finish. This is way over my head but it was fascinating to watch! Thanks!

[@Bigshoots86]

Not in California anymore, they've banned high content alcohol/denatured alcohol

[@Yeshuaschosen]

@@Bigshoots86 I'm sorry!

[@AldoSchmedack]

Same, I use for it too! Beats anything else. Better finish quality too, no clouding up.

[@PixelSchnitzel]

Hi, Pixel Schnitzel here. I came back here from the future to tell you that this is, by far, a better format than you'll be using in 2023/24. Please consider keeping it like this.

[@FelixBigglesworth]

I second the motion

[@josephjackson1956]

It's important to note that when you remove the H2O from the ethanol, in order to keep it at 100% ethanol, you should keep it in an inert atmosphere so the water vapor in the air won't diffuse into the ethanol.

[@sijmenkroon5972]

Thats why he added the sieves in the bottle again, so if the concentration ethanol went down they would absorb the water again and the conc would go back to 100%

[@sylviam6535]

Yes, because ethanol is hygroscopic.

[@mattia_carciola]

By far one of the most useful of your video, since anhydrous ethanol is difficult to find and quite expensive!

[@anonamouse]

Random algorithm recommendation... interesting to see the origin story of NileRed.

[@maricboy]

I will probably never make anything, but i find it very intressting to just watch the process. Thanks for uploading.

[@roysingh5975]

Excellent tutorial. You're a natural teacher. Keep going.

[@ice788]

"store ethanol somewhere safe" -Me "GET IN MY BELLY!"

[@oskarthompson3789]

I'm bigger than you i'm higher on the food chain!

[@-._.-._--._.-._--._.-._--._.-.]

Remember kids alcohol is worse than marijuana and causes cancer

[@revilooliver486]

@@-._.-._--._.-._--._.-._--._.-. Ok, stoner...

[@snakie413]

@@-._.-._--._.-._--._.-._--._.-. lol, who cares, It gets me drunk. Same as weed can give u psychosis, but u dont care, cause it gets u high

[@kareemapbio7332]

You are an excellent chemist. Much respect to you from a junior chem student.

[@WATAFAQAsD123]

Use cotton wool to filter stuff. Thats what we use for HPLC and LCMS at our company. Pretty much all colloidical residue remains at the filtering agent.

[@jont7331]

2020 Coronavirus: KZbin recommendations:

[@hsadreamerofrlyeh7516]

Add some aloe vera gel and you have hand sanitizer. Hmmmmm could screwtube actually be helping us? No, it's just a janky recommendation algorithm

[@davidnowacki1942]

Leave my camp stove fuel ALONE!!!

[@anullhandle]

Add water to reduce it to 70% it's more effective as a sanatizer. Fwiw just wash your hands it's more effective if you have water available.

[@bettertelevision968]

already stoled your camp fuel

[@dyztroyax4628]

So.. you want to watch Corona news all day? Have fun

[@leftylizard9085]

Finally. The perfect drink to have during the debate tonight.

[@ChilloutLibrary]

Chris Wallace also ordered one shot during that "quarrel" @ Bad Lip Reading

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Ahh, politics. No matter how much alcohol you drink, you're still too sober to enjoy it

[@CoxyNormus]

I was freaked out when you put the foil over the vertical tube and y adapter. DON'T YOU NEED TO MEASURE THE BOILING POINT?? But then I realized there's not actually any water left to recondense in the collection flask. Nice procedure, Nile.

[@PlasmaHH]

I have been wondering if you could not get rid of the dust by washing them sieves beforehand, or do they constantly decompose?

[@LiborTinka]

Mine produce substantially less dust after being washed, maybe there will be none after more washing. The dust should be active though as the adsorbtion happens on the molecular level.

[@EdIvory]

Libor Tinka does its effectiveness diminish per gram over the life of the sieve, regeneration after regeneration?

[@Kelnx]

@@EdIvory I used to use molecular sieve to keep an FTIR spectrometer free of moisture, and over time it does seem to lose its potency. We had to order more every so often. I don't know the particulars of by how much over time, but for us, it was about 2-3 years of use it kind of lost its potency to the point you had to toss it and get new sieve. That may have had more to do with what we had to recover it (a simple toaster oven without a fan) than the sieve itself. But I did bake it at the temperature and for the time the label on the sieve said to. If I had to guess, I'd say other contaminants eventually build up within or on the sieve over time so that it cannot adsorb enough water to be wholly effective. As far as dust goes, I never washed sieve, but dust was always present, no matter how much dust was left behind in the oven I used to recover it. The sieve is basically a type of hard clay, so it is brittle. It just seems to create more dust over time.

[@LiborTinka]

@@EdIvory I haven't used it in so many cycles to notice but maybe crushing them would increase fresh surface area and make the sieves live longer. The 3A sieves can be obtained cheaply but high quality zeolites are expensive.

[@Mutantcy1992]

I have firsthand experience with this. A wash certainly helps, but is not a perfect solution generally. The dust is extremely fine and can be difficult to filter out. In a batch configuration like in the video, you basically have to do a distillation to get the inevitable dust away.

[@eliduttman315]

Molecular sieves are a comparatively recent development. Back when I was in school, we used calcium oxide (quicklime). CaO + H2O yields Ca(OH)2.

[@brucecowles6306]

where yields confirmed using hydro-meter?

[@olegshevchenko5869]

I would've went with sodium

[@eliduttman315]

@@olegshevchenko5869 No good, as metallic sodium reacts with an alcohol to produce hydrogen gas and sodium alkoxide. Alkoxides are useful nucleophilic reagents.

[@maxjoechl5663]

@@eliduttman315 That's not much of an issue, though - sodium reacts with the remaining water to form sodium hydroxide, and while it does indeed form sodium ethoxide with ethanol, the equilibrium favors the deprotonation of the stronger acid, which in this case would be H2O. Thus, if you only add a modest excess of sodium to your azeotrope, you can easily separate the anhydrous ethanol from the newly-formed sodium salts.

[@jamesreed1546]

Magnesium sulphate was what we used

[@michaelpatrick6950]

Take a box of corn starch spread it on a cookie sheet. Place in a 250F oven for a couple of hours to dry it from 11% w/w moisture to 3-4% w/w moisture. Place it in a glass container with a silicone snap lid until ready to use. When ready, dump it into the 190 proof ethanol and stir for a few minutes. Filter the corn starch out on a coffee filter and your ethanol will be 199 proof. The corn starch can be recycled by letting the ethanol air evaporate and redrying the starch in the oven. Be very careful with the re-dried cornstarch as it's explosive is dispersed in air. Your 190 proof should be booze alcohol because the starch won't necessarily take out denaturants.

[@highihigh]

Here's a tip if you want your ethanol really extra sooper dry : dissolve a little bit of sodium in it prior to distillation. Of course, this only makes sense if you then handle it in a dry atmosphere (for instance, via a Schlenk line), or it will otherwise pump moisture back from the air. (but if you have a schlenk line, distillation becomes super easy : you don't even need a condenser! Two flasks, a T-shaped piece of glassware and some liquid nitrogen are enough!)

[@odissey2]

I used to distill solvents (including ethanol) over the sodium mirror to remove water to approx 10E-5%. Basically, a metal sodium is evaporated in the distilling column and solvent vapors are passed over bare metal, eating out all water molecules. Of course, everything is done under vacuum and purged with nitrogen or argon.

[@odissey2]

For those who can afford, a metal sodium can be replaced with eutectic mixture of sodium and potassium, forming liquid alloy, which can be stirred inside the flask. A sodium itself is quickly getting covered by hydroxide, slowing the process.

[@robertwadsworth5226]

BTW - another use for 100% ethanol is for quick test of circuit boards for shorts. Can't have any water in it when pouring it on; or you are making a short. Since a short creates some heat, the alcohol will evaporate quickly and leave a dry spot - which is easily noticed. However, if the short is too hot it can be a catastrophe by making a fire. Best used for low amperage/voltage (less than 100mA) short detection using only a small amount of alcohol and checking only a different small area each time with good ventilation . . . Use utmost care - you are responsible!

[@stargazer7644]

Pure water is actually a pretty good insulator.

[@batwing-plays]

Fun fact: in Poland you don't have to go to pharmacy to can get 95% ethanol - you can buy it in most grocery stores. We use them to make a liquor called "nalewka" that's prepared by pouring it over some fruits or whatever (I like to dump some anise into the spirit) and leave it for a month or so. In case of the watery addon it usually makes the concentration go down to 40-60% which is perfectly drinkable.

[@jaketaylor1031]

100% ethanol is really important for certain molecular biology procedures like DNA extraction and purification. This is a good procedure to know, thank you.

[@edlong8387]

Another possible drying agent is common table salt NaCl as it is hydrophilic and insoluble in alcohol. The salt combines with the water but remains insoluble to the alcohol. This causes the alcohol and water to separate into two layers with the much less dense alcohol floating atop the denser salt water. The alcohol can then simply be decanted off leaving the salt water behind. One could also distill the alcohol off the salt water as well, but that would be more time consuming and more effort. The remaining saltwater can then be dried which will leave your salt behind able to be reused again in much the same fashion as your filter beads.

[@xilified]

Finally something to start the morning with.

[@E_Rico]

Best moonshine tutorial on youtube

[@kalleklp7291]

There is also the option of distilling under a vacuum. However, making ethanol that is about 100% is pointless as it is hygroscopic and will attract moisture from the ambient as soon as it is taken outside the vacuum conditions.

[@iguanapete3809]

I saw a doc. on Jonny Appleseed. He in fact planted apple trees to make applejack. In the winter people would put their applejack out side. The water part would freeze but not the alcohol part. Pick out the ice and have stronger liquor.

[@levitheentity4000]

1:32 and the 3rd and most important reason (pure substances are so satisfying)

[@rustyfox2794]

As well as commercial molecular sieves you can use cement powder and starch, both of which adsorb water, but not alcohol. As with the commercial molecular sieves a second distillation would be best. The added advantage of these is that they're much cheaper and more readily available. Would you consider doing a video to try out these methods, just to compare? Thanks for a great video!!

[@JacobCarlson]

I love the idea of keeping a liquid dry

[@sockpuppetbitme]

By the way, it's a great solvent for making plant-based potions because it evaporates easily and is not poisonous in trace amounts. 100% is good if you're making oils for instance

[@dasarcanaeum]

Yep, my reason for watching this vid. I got mad just to be able to buy 95% ethanol :S

[@markarca6360]

Molecular sieves (like zeolite) are also used in medical and industrial oxygen concentrators. Remember that atmospheric air has only 21% oxygen. Molecular sieves allow oxygen molecules to pass but leaves the other gases behind, so it makes 30% - 99% oxygen from room air.

[@DavidDembeck]

Anhydrous ethanol is used for cleaning high powered laser optics because it cleans and leaves no residue.

[@markotb]

doesnt ethanol equalise at ~95% due to it absorbing moisture from the atmosphere, as in if you leave the 100% ethanol bottle open for some time it will equalise to ~95%?

[@gairisiuil]

thats why he put the sieves into the 100%

[@gairisiuil]

@QueHubo Parcero 7:02

[@twicebittenthasme5545]

Always diverse...always interesting! I wish you teach other yt'ers your methods of work, presentation and enough pertinent information as instructions and safety precautions to make each video unique and a pleasure to watch! Thank you for sharing, yet again!#!

[@jadenephrite]

Details @ 1:47, the audio says that "ethanol" is poured into the graduated cylinder whereas the closed caption states that it is "methanol". Furthermore the label on the bottle states that it contains 95% ethanol.

[@PauloConstantino167]

You didn't put the ethanol back into the original container because it had some left over denaturing agents!

[@NileRed]

Ha-ha I realized as I was making it that someone would comment :p. I wouldn't cleaned the bottle first. I just like glass bottles though. Makes me seem more pro

[@hairyputter5363]

@@NileRed you are pro man

[@rp479]

Bro you have an amazing channel. Been watching tons of your vids. I’m feel like a chemist just watching you lol!

[@hupiscratch110]

Now it makes sense why Brazilian ethanol at the fuel pump is around 96%, great video

[@whysoscared435]

you can mix it with Aluminium ethanolate. It will react with water to form Aluminium Hydroxide and ethanol

[@americannomadnews5370]

When storing the 100% ethanol in the bottle it occurred to me that you could put the seeds in a paper teapouch to keep the dust from getting into the ethanol.

[@Hunne2303]

nope, not small enough as shown in the video when the coffee filter was used to try and get the dust out

[@nicoschadjidemetriou4373]

You can use CaO to absorb the water and then careful distillation. Last year i closed the 95% ethanol in a nylon bag with CaCl2(dehydrator) and after some days the ethanol became 100%.

[@benpeltola1364]

Me: Sees video title Also me: 'Cheers, I'll drink to that, bro.'

[@fredlonbottom238]

Question : is it okay to drink the "dust" Asking for a friend.

[@jairvandersterre1002]

In the first minute I had learnt more about this than a year of high school science.

[@ichkloppdichum]

Thats cap🧢🧢

[@Jackcat-ub6co]

the days when nilered was in a garage i trust this more than any other video still

[@josephjackson1956]

I can tell who's a chemist in the comments and who's not based on the whether they mention getting drunk or not

[@ghostnoodle9721]

joseph jackson Chemists drink too

[@paulnoecker1202]

I'll puke on your shoes to that

[@notablediscomfort]

You got be one hell of a brokedick peckerwood to think chemists and get crunk better than everyone else.

[@clendi2002]

The "95% ethanol (EtOH)" you purchase from pharmacies typically (in USA almost always) has acetone, and less used isopropyl alcohol and other toxic substances, in addition to denatonium, added to get around taxation. Isopropyl alcohol and methanol are both metabolized into acetone in the human body, acetone is toxic. the specific gravity of both is close enough to each other to render a hygrometer almost useless, while the boiling point is much higher for EtOH, they are azeotropic so distillation/fractional distillation wont remove all the acetone and most other additives and has a negligible effect on the denatonium, which is why it used to denature-a minuscule amount is needed and most of what you distilled off was water and some, maybe, acetone-but its likely not close to 100% vs your initial 95% mixture...so don't try this to drink it

[@dickhedd8490]

John Smith John Sir you Are Mistaken!! Acetone is Deadly!! This type mistaken info gets people Dead!! 1 Love

[@Mic_Glow]

Idk why spirytus isn't a thing outside east europe. It's not something to drink out of the bottle, but great for homemade liquor. If you use vodka instead, it will taste poorly (gonna be 20% alcohol after you mix it with, let's say, raspberries- with spirytus you can get 40-60% alcohol content in the end product)

[@KB4QAA]

Clendi: Absolutely absurd. Acetone, Methanol, IPA and Ethanol are easily separated by fractional distilling. Their boiling points are so far apart that even a high school student who has experience in the method can do it. Acetone comes off first at 56C/132F, then Methanol at 64.7C/148.5, IPA at 82.6C/180.7F and finally Ethanol at close to 100C/212F. This is a nice technical exercise, but a stupid way of getting drinking alcohol.

[@KreaTiefpunkt]

Why wouldn't you just add MEK to the ethanol to make it basically undrinkable?

[@chunkytoads4509]

You're a life saver! Had some 3A sieve hanging around, glad I didn't toss it. Thanks :)

[@Pwn3dbyth3n00b]

Nile Red: I'll do this extra step and distill this to get rid of the sieve dust. Also Nile Red: Since we removed the sieve dust I'm going to pour it back into the ethanol.

[@israelbruno8259]

Do you have a video about Bio-diesel, a demonstration or description on how to process or a good reference? Your videos brought me memories of my Chem. Lab. days in college. Thank you.

[@dannythompson1948]

Im so dumb. I just looked up the definition of 'anhydrous' lol i probably could have figured it out had i thought about it for 2 seconds.. You're a huge inspiration NileRed!! I did my first acid to base extraction the other day! You trained me well!

[@Gaspo123]

In power electronics assembly with solder strips instead of paste we use a small of 100% ethanol between the chip and solder to hold everything together. In the soldering oven the ethanol evaporates away without effecting the soldering surfaces

[@superdau]

Isn't the point of the denaturing agents to *not* be easily removeable by destillation so to keep people from drinking the untaxed alcohol?

[@NileRed]

It's just so that it isn't classified as food and therefore isn't taxed. How you choose to denature it is pretty variable

[@haydenlaidlaw6410]

@@NileRed chemistry question, is iron oxide and magnesium sulfate in water toxic?

[@kubaniedzwiecki8520]

"my local pharmacy simply sells it" >me being kinda shocked that he can't just buy it at convinience store(in my country there is like 96% in almost any store and it's even drinkable

[@ghillies3796]

what country do you live in

[@kubaniedzwiecki8520]

@@ghillies3796 Poland

[@ilovesheen7446]

Narancia Ghirga ahh of course

[@kubaniedzwiecki8520]

@Paul Olsen oh, i didn't know that

[@romajimamulo]

@@kubaniedzwiecki8520 yeah, they're often more upscale than non pharmacy convenience stores. And are pretty common. (I'm talking about the US, but it's probably similar in Canada where he's from)

[@tarikmomumou9437]

Trying to make Mercury Fulminate by using Absolute Ethanol, this video helped a lot, thank you sir!

[@BillySugger1965]

Nice video Nile. By the way, the word sieve rhymes with give. It’s the name we give to the kitchen implement I think you call a strainer. That bowl shaped wire mesh thing for removing lumps from sauces.

[@IneptOrange]

Drinking this will send you to the shadow realm

[@jvcyt298]

I was in the petroleum service industry from 1998-2012. I remember years before then hearing about the difficulties of producing and storing what they called gasohol. Later, when my job was addressing issues caused by water contamination in 10% ethanol/ gasoline blends, there were many solutions, however, few of them were practical and none of them were long-term. Needless to say, it was a constant concern. There were so-called water filters that were made for alcohol-blended gasoline, If I'm not mistaken they used corn starch to absorb the water, and clogged quickly.

[@kimmemestar7749]

Ayee back when you used to work from your parents garage!

[@jakedg4870]

that there is no lid on top of it in the thumbnail triggered me sooo much 😂

[@gamingcujo9443]

Thank you Nile, now I know how to make every hour happy hour, gonna whip some up tomorrow

[@piranha031091]

Here's a tip if you want your ethanol really extra sooper dry : dissolve a little bit of sodium in it prior to distillation. Of course, this only makes sense if you then handle it in a dry atmosphere (for instance, via a Schlenk line), or it will otherwise pump moisture back from the air. (but if you have a schlenk line, distillation becomes super easy : you don't even need a condenser! Two flasks, a T-shaped piece of glassware and some liquid nitrogen are enough!)

[@NileRed]

Are you talking about a good old vac transfer? If only I had a schlenk line with a good vacuum! I have no schlenk line and a terrible vacuum pump :p

[@piranha031091]

Nile Red Yup, Vacuum transfer indeed. Now, you don't necessairly need specifically a schlenk line : as long as you have a way of putting a container either under vacuum or slight argon overpressure (or whatever non reactive gas suits you). So, three way valve with a vacuum pump on one side, your gas inlet and a way of keeping its pressure constant on the other side (like, a bubbler made of a 2m long hose filled with silicon oil and a canula going to the bottom of it : it should give you 0.18 bar overpressure). And a flask to collect the oil in case of backflow), and whatever you're experimenting with on the common side. Getting a good vacuum is indeed a real issue for the home experimenter though. Good vacuum pumps are not cheap!

[@KowboyUSA]

+Nile Red A decent vacuum pump is on a lot of wish lists.

[@NileRed]

+piranha031091 my vacuum pump was like 80 dollars off amazon. It smokes when its on for a few minutes (I think i punished it too much).

[@jannlee45]

+piranha031091 Have you tried this? Sodium reacts with ethanol making sodium ethoxide. The ethoxide will exist in a closely balanced equilibrium with water due to their very similar pKa's. Does it really remove the water somehow?

[@Nikolaii2571]

I love your glassware, Nile.

[@Economivision]

It’s wild to see Nile from 6 years ago. So much is different.

[@staples138]

Yo, my dad used to do that but that was years back. Haven't seen him since.

[@johnapple6646]

Same bro

[@SuperheroArmorychannel]

You could have just dried the ethanol using potassium carbonate (which can also be dried and reused) without messing around with your dusty sieves. You can also store the ethanol with the potassium carbonate to keep it pure without needing to distill. Much easier and simpler. And FYI that fractional distillation column is completely unnecessary when distilling to remove the sieve dust.

[@markwallace5274]

6 yrs old now but I’ve been on a NileRed binge lately lol love the ethanol content since that’s what I run my car on well E85 which is really only around 70% Ethanol and 30% Gasoline in my area wish I had the means to make my own lol

[@andy16666]

I've only ever heard it pronounced "civ", which seems to agree with Oxford Languages.

[@Georgey0121]

Curve pouch poo

[@PuzzledMonkey]

Sieve is pronounced siv, with a short i, as it is the noun form of the verb "to sift".

[@b4uc2far95]

We use molecular sieves in our Gas Chromatograph along with specific “columns” to separate the individual elements out of the compounds we are analyzing.

[@williammcdonald5086]

Also consider keeping the 100% ethanol in a locked cabinet to prevent theft by those wishing to drink it.

[@Mikey-ym6ok]

Nobody could drink straight alcohol

[@mrdProf42]

Interesting process; thank you for the information and tips. The pronunciation of "sieve" could do with some distillation.

[@carltomacruz9138]

Everyone has his/her own quirk in pronunciation. I pronounce the L in salmon and almond, as well as in Spanish words, like tortilla, cepillo, and manzanilla.

[@bmcmeatshield9164]

@@carltomacruz9138 why wouldn't you pronounce the L in almond? 🤔

[@carltomacruz9138]

@@bmcmeatshield9164: From what I've noticed with folks from both the UK and the US, the L in "almond" is silent.

[@SatireEnjoyer]

I like how he says everything like we are actually making this at home

[@spudhead169]

Can you wash the sieves beforehand then dry them out to reduce the dust?

[@EmoEwok666]

typically when you activate the sieves in an oven or whatever they tend to break down slightly creating the dust. if you want to get rid of the dust (which is harmless in most cases) is to 'put the sieves in a sieve' to sift off the dust.