Cement for Reproofing?

Hash and Stuff Solvent Recovery
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I was talking to an old process chemist I know today. He’s always full of bizarre inventive solutions for things. I mentioned the struggles people have continually reproofing their ethanol, or using molecular sieves to dry it. He then told me that plain old cement can serve as a strong water absorbent and will get ethanol to 200 proof, as well as forming a paste that’s easy to remove. Anyone heard of this before? Definitely a lot cheaper than molecular sieves ($10 for 100 lbs retail). It sounded goofy when I heard it but he claimed to have done it in the past.

The constituents of portland cement are silica, alumina, calcium sulphate and oxide, all of which are excellent drying agents.

So I just wanted to put this advice out there and hear what people think.

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i wonder if any of these components react harshly or dissolve in ethanol

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I was talking about this in the original crc thread. But is it safe lol heres a fun video

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Maybe worth an experiment if one could find a food grade cement ? I would worry about pulling contaminants that are lost likely in the raw milled constituents. I guess all you really smart heads with access to analytical equip could give it a look post reproofing?? Random guy 2 cents

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Almost definitely, yes.

EDIT: Good thought on the food-grade comment. I doubt there’s food grade concrete (considering it’s use), but perhaps the absorbent constituents? There must be a type of packing that would remove water from ethanol?

Anyone know of food grade dessicants that could be used for this purpose? That wouldn’t dissolve in ethanol?

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For what it’s worth I was able to find food grade of all the chemicals listed in the OP

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It’s worth a concrete mix that’s potentially food-grade. Nice research dude!

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I don’t think there’s much potential for these to dissolve in ethanol really. And if they did, you’d just need to mix them in pre-recovery and they’d distill out. As far as harsh reactions, it’s quite alkaline, but that shouldn’t have much impact on 200 proof (as opposed to 190)

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Another option - Epsom salt, heated to 200C, gives anhydrous magnesium sulfate, a powerful drying agent. Cheap and food grade.

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This, there’s a chart somewhere on which salts to use for drying different solvents. Sieves work well for butane but are expensive and ill suited for ethanol.

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@Shadownaught any interest in trying to source some drying agents/blend of this sort?

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Nobody enjoyed the video?? Lol

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Ha, well I should include that I work at a lot of etoh plants and the main way they remove h20 on that major a scale is sieves, most every plant

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Pretty standard A/b alkaloid extraction- the cement is alkali - they’d do well to soak the leaf in an acid solution first though and then swing it down helps to pull more alks…

Just finished the vid they do not explain this very well- the sulfuric acid is not added “to prevent a chemical reaction” it’s literally what causes it, swings ph down to create the salt forms of the alkaloids-

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I like how he tastes it. And the weed whacker lol

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I was impressed.

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You mean plants that produce ethanol (distillaries), or extraction plants?

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It would be etoh production, a distillery yes. Big o’ distilleries!

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If you wanted to use an absorbent media for drying…we have an entire list of powders that do that(no magnesium sulfate though).

We also sell mol sieve beads designed for stripping moisture from ethanol that can be dried and reused.

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What are the desired specifications for ethanol purifying seives? What about isopropanol? And how do you use your ethanol proofing hydrometer to measure iso?