Simple and Fractional Distillation in Vodka (Antonov)

Karen Gumabon, Genevive Hernandez, Beatrice Ilao, Ma. Kristina Lagman, and Lyra Murielle Lasangre

Group 4 2F Pharmacy
University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Pharmacy

ABSTRACT
Distillation is the process of converting a liquid to a vapor, condensing the vapor, and
collecting the distillate into another container. It is a commonly used method for purifying
liquids and separating mixtures of liquids with different boiling points into their individual
components. The experiment aimed to differentiate simple from fractional distillation, to
separate its components, alcohol and water, and to determine its percentage of the
ethanol in a beverage. A certain volume (15 ml) of vodka was placed on the pearshaped flask with a fractional distillation set-up and was heated constantly with an
alcohol lamp. A 0.50 mL of distillate was collected in every test tube until the
temperature reached close to 100C. The first and last distillates were kept and its
flammability was tested. The first distillate was flammable meaning it has the
component, ethanol, while the last distillate is inflammable thus, having the water
component after being purified. The volume of distillate collected by the end of the
distillation was 7 mL at 100c and the residue was 3.4 mL giving a percent ethanol of
31%.

INTRODUCTION
Distillation can be used in purifying
water or other substances and removing
or separating the components of mixture
such as an alcoholic beverage like
vodka, by means of separating more
volatile substance from non-volatile or
less volatile substance.(University of
Colorado at Boulder, Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry) There are
two principles that lie in the experiment,
Raoults Law and Daltons Law. Raoults
Law connotes that the vapor pressure of
a solution equals the product of the
vapor pressure of the pure solvent and
the mole fraction of solvent.While
Daltons Law, which is also known as
law of partial pressure, implies that the
pressure of a gas mixture is equal to the
sum of the partial pressures of the

gases composing it.(Pederson,S.F and

Myers, 2011)
In this experiment, the group should
be able to attain the following objective:
first, to be able to separate the alcohol
content of the alcoholic beverage.
Second calculate for its percentage
ethanol present. Lastly, differentiate the
efficiency of simple distillation and
fractional distillation.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Materials

The sample used was clear unflavored

vodka (Antonov)

15

Methods

The set-up used was a fractional

distillation set-up. The apparatus used
were the following: iron stand, iron rings,
iron clamps, pear shaped flask (with 15
mL vodka),alcohol lamp, thermometer,
fractionating column (with boiling
stones) , condenser, rubber tubing,
adapter and test tubes. The instruments
were tightly secured and sturdy. The
quick-fit distilling flask contains 15mL of
the sample beverage which is the
vodka. After which, the flask was heated
with an alcohol lamp constantly being
rotated under the flask. In every test
tube, a certain volume (0.5mL) of
distillate was collected and recorded
until it reached 96-100o C. The first
distillate and the last distillate were kept
to test its flammability.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Table 1.0: Volume and Temperature of
the distillate.
Test
tube
number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Volume
(mL)

Temperatur
e C

0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5

32
80
80
80
80
80
80
80
79
79
83
93
96
99

7.0

100

Table 1.0 shows that as the volume of

distillate increases, the temperature also
increases, but in some cases there is a
decrease in temperature, until it comes
to a point wherein the temperature is
100c. When the temperature became
constant, which is 80c, it confirms the
presence of ethanol in the sample.

Table 2.0 Graph of Temperature and Volume of the Distillate

T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
00.511.522.533.544.555.566.57
Volume (mL)

(Table 2.0) shows the graphed type of

the table of values of the temperature
and volume of the distillate. The
constant values which signifies a steady
slope is the volume of the ethanol (5.0
to 3.5mL).
In the flammability test, the first distillate
produces flame which makes it
flammable. The last distillate didnt
produce any flame at all which makes it
inflammable. Therefore, the component
of the first distillate is ethyl alcohol and
water and the component of the last
distillate is water alone.
After

performing the flammability test, the

percent alcohol, percent loss and
percentage error were computed:

an excessive heating of the flask that

caused the rapid evaporation of the
sample or it can be caused by the
careless collection of distillate another
possible cause is 0.5ml calibration is not
accurate and precise during the
experiment.

(3.5 mL0.5 mL)

x 100=20
15 mL
REFERENCES

%loss=

Vsample(Vdistilate +Vresidue)
x 100
Vsample

15 mL (7 ml+3.4 mL)
x 100=30.67
15 mL
Therefore, the percent ethanol content
is 20%. The percent loss is 30.67%.
This explains that there was some part
of the sample that was lost which was
caused by evaporation due to the
constant heating of the flask. The
percent loss also shows that there was

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University
of
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website:
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