[Oldtimer]

The commercial use of the sieve systems involves steam drying of the Zeolites. The secret to correct use lately is the manner of injecting the steam into the vessel slowly, actually converting the remaining water into vapor and venting it into a different holding system.

You can hit it too fast and break the Zeolites, but it does a better job than the Antifreeze extraction method, leaves less unfavorable components in the ETOH, and is relatively cheaper. You have the steam already from distillation and the fumes are relatively clean as well.

Reboiling does a good job for small levels of production. But achieving 100% ETOH is sometimes difficult as bumping from minerals leftover in the vessel for the column can disturb the vapor separation. This isn't such a big problem as 1-2% water isn't enough to really hurt the Ethanols use as a fuel.

That 1% level may even be desirable to increase the vapor pressure sufficiently to efficiently combust the Alcohol.

Otherwise, the product from Sieving processes is more favorable. Use of both processes could be a good idea as well. Say you produce 10,000 gallons of Ethanol, 5% water cut leaves only 500 gallons of water to be removed with every batch. But if you can reduce the cut to 100 gallons or less with pre-reboiling w/ the antifreeze you would have to dry the batch dryer less often.

These things will get saturated and steam extraction won't dry them to 100%.  It's just that it isn't necessary to get them back to 100% dryness for more batch processing as the quantity of Zeolites should be sufficient to operate the process with only a 80% H2O removal for a few runs again.

Andy

[P-man]

OK, I got this book from the library today called From the Fryer to the Frying Pan and it's about running a car on vegetable oil. You might wanna read it. I haven't looked at it much yet but it looks interesting.

[Oldtimer]

.

Excellant.
This company is buildingthe major Ethanol Plants in the Midwest if somebody is looking for some interesting work.
ICM of Colwich, Kansas.
http://www.icminc.com/companyinfo.aspx

Nice website with answers to many problems and concerns of Ethanol Production. One page explanation of the process at:
http://www.icminc.com/drymill.aspx

[billnotgatez]

Quoted from a web source -

Biodiesel is a name applied to fuels manufactured by the esterification of renewable oils, fats and fatty acids. The fatty acids may be derived from vegetable oils such as soybean or rapeseed (canola), rendered tallow, or waste materials such as cooking and trap greases. The resulting product has 10-12% oxygen by weight and little or no sulfur and has been shown to reduce the particulate emission in diesel engine use. Chemically, it is essentially non-aromatic and has a higher cetane number than normal diesel fuel. It has a heating value of about 133,000 BTU per gallon compared to about 140,000 BTU per gallon of #2 fuel oil. It has a slightly higher density. Neat (100%) biodiesel also has higher cloud and pour point temperatures than home heating oil.

[Oldtimer]

You guys were talking about Benzene above and it got me thinking.
Why does Hartz make dewormer for dogs and cats out of Benzene ? Instead of something less destructive the stuff in the pink boxes sold in places like Walmart, grocery stores, etc. is Benzene in capsules. Not Piprazene.

Also, Benzene is found in most Ethylene Glycol used in seperators, so it isn't wanted if the ETOH is going to be sold to industries that make products for cleaning or personal goods like makeup. It is hard to actually get that ring compound out in a fractionating column that is in constant use. Bumping.

If you look at your dishwashing soap bottle, chances are it says Benzene is in the fluid. That is because the compound is so difficult to remove from the Ethanol used to make the soap. In fact, Benzene is in way too many things on the store shelf for a Cancer causing chemical.

Andy

[Mitch]

I doubt benzene is that toxic. Its not like your bathing in it. Remember, toxicity is about dose not exposure.

[jdurg]

I've never seen benzene listed on a bottle of dishwashing detergent.  

[Oldtimer]

Yes, that  Ethanol made from petroleum always had benzene in it. And it's not a safe compound, I prefer to keep my hands out of it and wear gloves.

.

The soap manufacturers will buy a huge chunk of the Ethanol made in our local Ethanol plant here. We're told that this is the prime reason for it in fact.

If you check the bottles at your store, you shouldn't be surprised if you find it listed. I always bought Palmolive and it used to have it, now it isn't listed on my new one. As it is always able to attach to free radicals it is a dangerous component and definitely can initiate cancer. As this is the case, they may have a new technique of entrapping Benzene with some methylated component to de-activate its' notorious tendencies to damage our genetics as a Teratogenic compound.
Andy :sad: