SIMPLE DISTILLATION OF VODKA (THE BAR)
Somo, John Carlo , Sopoco, Marc Andrew , Sotong, Patricia , Venturina, Flian Lyra , Tia, Queenie de Leon
2B- Medical Technology Faculty of Pharmacy UST
ABSTRACT
Distillation is the method used for purifying liquids and separating mixtures of liquids into their individual components. The experiment targets to differentiate the two methods; simple and fractional distillation, to separate its water and alcohol components, and to determine the percentage of ethanol present in the vodka using simple distillation. A volume of 15mL vodka was poured into the distillation flask for heating/boiling by the alcohol lamp. 0.50 ml of distillate was collected in every calibrated test tube until the temperature reached 100 C. The initial/first and the final distillates were kept for the testing of flammability. The first distillate was the one containing the ethanol since it is flammable, while the other one is inflammable so it is the one with the purified water content.

INTRODUCTION
Distillation is the method of converting a liquid to vapor, condensing the vapor, and collecting the distillate in another container. It is used to separate liquids from nonvolatile solids, as in the separation of alcoholic liquors from fermented materials, or in the separation of two or more liquids having different boiling points, as in the separation of gasoline, kerosene, and lubricating oil from crude oil. In the modern organic chemistry laboratory, distillation is a powerful tool, both in identifying and purifying of organic compounds. There are four different methods of distillation: Simple distillation, Fractional distillation, Vacuum distillation, and steam distillation. The objectives are: to differentiate simple from fractional distillation. (In our case, we will be dealing with simple distillation), to separate the components of an alcoholic beverage (vodka), and to calculate the percentage of the ethanol present.
METHODOLOGY
The given setup was a simple distillation setup. Several support apparatus like iron stand, iron rings, and clamps were used. As well as test tubes, alcohol lamp, stirring rods, beakers, rubber tubing and graduated cylinder were also prepared beforehand. The given quick-fit distillation setup consists of distilling flask or pear shaped flask, thermometer, fractionating column, condenser, and adapter. The set-up was carefully and tightly placed together at the same time the test tubes were calibrated. The 15mL vodka sample was poured into the distilling flask together with the boiling chips. Then, the flask was heated using the alcohol lamp underneath. After that, extraction of distillate began. Every calibrated test tube was filled with an exact volume of 0.5mL of distillate and the temperature was recorded up to the point it reached 96-100 C. The first and last distillates were used for the flammability test. They were placed on a watch glass and lit a match over them to see which is flammable and which is not. The distillation setup was cooled by running water. The volume of the residue was weighed and recorded. The records between the temperature and volume of the distillate were plotted in a graph. The percentage of ethanol and percentage loss was also done for computations.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Referring to Table 1, it shows that the volume and the temperature are both in a directly-proportional relationship. Meaning, as the volume of distillate increases, the temperature increases as well until it reaches maximum point. The constant rate of the temperature and the appearance of a constant slope in the graph only represent the presence of the ethanol in its most concentrated form.
The constant values which represents a steady slope is the volume of ethanol (10-25mL). The volume of the distillate is 6.5mL and the volume of the residue is 4.5mL.
Regarding the flammability test, the first distillate produced a blue flame indicating that it is flammable. The last distillate, on the other hand, didn’t produce anything which obviously makes it inflammable. We can now deduct that the first sample contains the ethyl alcohol and the latter contains water. So, basically, throughout the distillation process, there comes a decreasing amount of alcohol being extracted in each test tube.
%Ethanol = (VETOH / Vsample) x 100% = (2.0mL / 15mL) x 100% = 13.33%
Proof = ETOH x 2 = 26.66
%Loss = [Vsample – ( Vdistillate + V residue ) / Vsample] x 100% = [15mL – (6.5 + 4.5) / 15] x 100% = 26.66%
The percent ethanol is 13.33%. The percent loss is 26.66%. Meaning, there was a product of the sample that was missing caused by the evaporation due to continuous heating of the flask. While the percent loss, due to excessive heating on the flask which caused violent evaporation of the sample
Figure 1 Simple Distillation

Table 1 Temperature and volume of the distillate Test tube no. | Volume (mL) | Temperature, C | 1 | 0 | 30 | 2 | .5 | 75 | 3 | 10 | 84 | 4 | 15 | 84 | 5 | 20 | 84 | 6 | 25 | 84 | 7 | 30 | 88 | 8 | 35 | 90 | 9 | 40 | 92 | 10 | 45 | 94 |

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