[Freyja]

Hi everyone.

I am Freyja and I know exactly nothing about chemistry, however some very small discoveries made during DIY endeavours have sparked my interest and I would like to see if anyone knows anything about it.

I have been making a home exfoliant from used coffee grounds and either vegetable or olive oil.  Given enough time, this mixture goes rancid and when it does, it smells very strongly of acetone.

For the purpose of glass bottle cutting, it would be advantageous to be able to make acetone at home with such a simple method.

Can anyone confirm or disconfirm that the product of this mixture is acetone, or perhaps provide a method of finding out?  If it is acetone, how might I extract it?

Any thoughts on this matter would be really appreciated.

Thanks.

[sophotect]

I may be exhibiting a limited imagination, but I can't see how producing acetone this way could be economical.

Acetone is cheap & plentiful, why not just buy it?

It's possible that there are some ketones produced as decomp products of the rancid oil, these are volatile compounds, so they would have a distinct odor. The decomposing coffee grounds may also contribute pungency in the form of amines.

If you are getting significant yields of acetone, the really interesting question is what happens to the rest of the oil? From an energy & economic standpoint, acetone is one of the least significant potential products, since it represents only 3 of 18 carbons in oleic acid.