[lonelyplanet]

hi, i was having a discussion, with a friend and i assumed this would be a chem question so here i go:  is there any other way to purify alcohol (vodka in particular) without distiling it? are there any filters that would be able to separate the two? thanks in advance!

[enahs]

Yes there is away to purify alcohol without distilling. In fact, you can not get pure alcohol with distilling (for ethanol, drinking alcohol); as it forms a azeotrope (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azeotrope).

Calcium oxide when mixed with water and ethanol will form calcium hydroxide; which you then separate. But this is very slow, as you have to repeat the process many times. And if you are using something like ~15 alcohol instead of the 95.6% pure you can get with distillation it will take you countless number of tries (I am not even sure it will work as expected with that little of alcohol content).


And note, there is more to the flavor of a good vodka besides just the alcohol. Distillation as well as trying to purify it with the calcium oxide method will most likely destroy that flavor.

[billnotgatez]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol#Purification

The wiki can be your friend