Authors : V.E. Efeovbokhan, J.D. Udonne, D.E. Babatunde and S.E. Sanni
Abstract: Locally brewed Ogogoro, a mixture of ethanol and water in the ratio of 28:72 by volume was separated into its constituents by means of fractional distillation. The mixture of 95.5% ethanol and 4.5% water (percentage by volume) formed an azeotrope with a boiling point of 78.2EC and thus could not be further purified by distillation. The ethanol/water mixture after distilling to the azeotrope was shaken with calcium oxide to form the non-volatile compound, calcium hydroxide which altered the stability of the azeotrope and hence further separation of the constituents of the mixture. Nearly all of the calcium hydroxide was removed by filtration and the filtrate was redistilled to obtain higher puzrity ethanol relative to the azeotrope. The percentage purities of the ethanol were 96.5, 97% with the highest purity being 97.5%. The mass of calcium oxide used was varied at a constant time of 1 h and the effect on the percentage of ethanol achieved were recorded as 95.5, 97.7, 97, 96.5 and 96.5% from the initial percentages 95, 95, 95.5, 95.5 and 95.5% ethanol, respectively. By comparing masses, 10 g of calcium oxide gave the highest percentage purity of ethanol after distillation which was 97.5%. Also, in order to determine the effect of time on product purity, the duration for drying the ethanol/water mixture with constant mass of 10 g calcium oxide was varied from 1-5 h. It was observed that increase in drying time for the ethanol/water mixture after 1 h did not lead to increase in the purity of ethanol distilled. The effects of increase in height of column as well as number of random packing was investigated and found to increase the efficiency of the distillation process. Using the double fractionating column of height 77 cm with 145 random glass packing improved the purity of the ethanol from 40-2% as compared with 86% which was the percentage purity obtained when a single fractionating column of height 46 cm with 92 random glass packing was used.
V.E. Efeovbokhan, J.D. Udonne, D.E. Babatunde and S.E. Sanni, 2017. The Effect of Column Height, Packing Materials and Azeotrope Separation on the Purity of Ethanol Sourced from Ogogoro (Local Gin). Research Journal of Applied Sciences, 12: 97-103.