Chemiolis - 2022-04-05
In today's video i fractionally distill gasoline and further purify some fractions through redistillation and washing. Support my channel: https://www.patreon.com/chemiolis
The fractionating column used in oil refineries is really unique. The column is segmented into multiple chambers, each of which has liquid back flow arresters. This allows gasses to flow up the column, but when they reach a given chamber and condense into liquids, they fill the chamber and are siphoned off. This means that one distillation produces multiple distillate streams simultaneously! Imagine boiling one gallon of gas and recovering 5,6,10 different distillate streams all at the same time! Talk about the savings haha
This is one of many differences between the realm of glass like the lab shown here and the realm of steel. When you've got thousands of barrels going through each day, you optimize the heck out of every part of the process you can identify. When you've got a liter a few times total, you're just happy to have a fractioning column ahead of your condenser and have that even approximately work.
Yeah industrially these processes are way better (as they should), they also have the added benefit of having a fractionating column that is maybe 50 meters high :')
@Chemiolis Yeap, but it is sometimes not about size but amount of theoretical plates (TP). I am curious how many this vigreux column have. More or less from what I remember, one bubble plate (with is 1 TP) equals more or less around 10-8 cm of packed column (like copper or stainless steel kitchen scrubber) and for rashig rings it is a little more length. If someone have some references about it, please correct me, my memory could be better XD
But it was very nice distillation. Anything interesting in diesel or not really?
@Chemiolis And basically, what you've effectively done, is subdivided just one of those commercial columns... Makes you wonder what the total diversity in crude really looks like
yeah bubble caps etc...had me interested in that when I was about ten, so I read all I could, now I'm 52, I have distilled a lot of things in my work as a lab tech, but I have never distilled petrol, would interesting to know how much 2,2,4, trimethyl pentane is in your sample
As an PhD student in synthetic organic chemistry, I love these vids! Great quality and really interesting subjects
where u want to work after getting your doc? Research or industry? Many specialty companies looking for organic chemists
don't lie you are highschool dropout.
مرحبا كيف حالك
That is very cool to isolate and purify gasoline. Heptanes from chemical companies are NOT cheap either. It an interesting concept.
In Eastern Europe organized crime buys up untaxed cyclohexane posing as a nylon or pharmaceutical company then dilutes petrol-gasoline with it because of the high tax on gasoline. Ironically it damages the engines if high perfornance german luxury cars (that are own by other mobsters and their molls)
Great quality video. As a student studying chemical engineer bachelor seeing such processes in practice and not on just paper really helps with learning.
I'd hope you would have a lab class where you do distillations
Thanks for this video. I am starting to understand more about the work my father did at Chevron Research in the 1950s-60s, with catalysts and combustion research, to eliminate the need for tetraethyl lead. He didn't invent unleaded gas, but helped develop Chevron's Richmond, California refinery's method of making it. After he died I read a metastudy indicating the reduction of childhood exposure to environmental lead leads to a significant reduction in violent crime when the children become a young adults.
I’ve read about that too. An interesting aspect was analysis by geography, because unleaded gasoline was mandated in some states earlier than others.
I cringe a bit when I think about the traces of past chemistry and physics left in my body. Lead from gasoline & paint, fallout from above-ground nuclear testing, DDT, more PTFE related stuff than I can remember.
I remember schools collecting baby teeth when I was a kid to measure the amount of strontium-90 from testing fallout. With a half-life of 28.79 years, it’s mostly gone, so yay?
@Kevin Bauer gamma spectrum off test-era enamel can yield your age when compared to a curve of spectra vs year.
My understanding is, that unleaded gas is made by processing the gasoline in the "reformer," which converts the straight-chain alkanes into branched-chain ones. They form free radicals more easily, which is what the TEL used to do.
Cool stuff! I just binge watched your previous videos last week and am excited for what you have planned for the future!
"binge watched"? How about you learn some self control?
My ancestors were whalers,. they hunted whales and rendered their oil, and my great great grandfather was asked by someone (I forget their name, they had been friends from when they both went to MIT) who worked at standard oil of how to separate the layers and he helped build the first commercial refinery. Another funny thing is I grew up where the first person to ever make an oil pump came from, Edwin Drake was his name, in Castleton Vermont, New England USA. SO my hometown was the oil pump and my ancestor was the oil refinery. I think I have some bad Karma.
How was your great great grandfather called?
No, oil is awesome, you should be proud
Kerosene
@TheGrimCrim Weird take
In this weird patent system of world no one know where oil pump started first or first commercial refinery builder came from. So anyone can't claim anything without proof😢
My family has a long history working in the oil industry and I still learned something new today!
مرحبا اريد مساعدتك في امر ما
Good video. Lots of clear explanation and plenty of camera shots of the interesting parts. It's like an early NileRed video, only he seems to be down to <2 videos per year. Glad to see there's someone uploading far more often with quality chemistry videos, you've got a new subscriber!
Reminder that Nigel also has the channels NileBlue and "NileRed Shorts" (Which often upload what I call "longs" i.e. >60s).
And of course, there's NileGreen.
@mfaizsyahmi. I despise shorts, and don't really find the "blue" channel to be the same. If he won't upload, I don't have any reason to follow.
Unsubscribed from Nile. This channel much better. Shorts are just re edits of old videos
thanks for this great video, i also did a gasoline distillation myself using 91 unleaded gasoline( saudi arabia aramco gasoline )
i came up with same light fractions and at 80 dgrees a lot of liquid came over and took 40% of the distillation process.
Always a pleasure to see new chemistry channels pop up. Subbed =)
Very nice man. I can't say I've ever considered doing this, but it was rather enlightening in several ways.
Might go after that toluene tho...
A very good educating video! Thank you very much for it!
Your videos are serious quality! I look forward to your eventual explosion in popularity, I believe in you!
He’s boiling gasoline. Don’t mention explosion. 😜
@DrFiero LOL! He didn't mean literally.
Excited to see your channel grow!
nice video!
to get more inert solvents you can stir the gasoline with some oxidiser like KMnO4, NaCrO4. Followed by a water washing (this also reduces the amount of EtOH)
mfg hazelChem
Thanks for the ideas, i tried to keep it as accessible as possible since chemicals like KMnO4 are very regulated and difficult to obtain. Though, i personally have no issues getting it, so perhaps i will try this off cam sometime :-).
@Chemiolis Actually in EU getting KMnO4 is like filling one (actually half) page of paper with your ID data,amount bought and usage. Educational / hobby chemistry is quite a good usage if you order small quantities (<=1kg), but for larger ones you need to have a [registered business / chem college diploma] [and / or] chem company might request a photo of your hardware setup.
How would one build a more industrial style fractionating collum inexpensively for a more continuous prossess of purifying pyrosis products?
@Pete Venuti It depends on definition of "inexpensively"... Actually if I'd be required to make such column I would go for SS304 (or copper) pipe and sheet but I doubt if that's "inexpensive". Especially with current SS3XX prices...
If I remember well TechIngredients have a still with semi-industrial column which looks kinda similar to refinery ones, however it's single-output.
Alternatively you can do a multi-stage distillation where temperature goes lower and lower with each stage (actually this is easiest way to do so if you own quite a bunch of glassware or [oxipropnane/oxiacetylene] torch).
@тυѕкαωкα my skills with a torch and glass have much not to be desired.
Heck, I can't even respond to the weird looks like get when I tried... by saying that it's art.
The people with that skill are true artists, it's just functional art.
Nifty. Journeyman chemsits' stuff. Might want to put on Teflon tape on the glass plug for your various flasks and seperatory funnels, though. If you have an aqueous solution that has a high pH from NaOH or something similar, you might have a hard time getting your stopper out. Do that three or four times and that could be pretty expensive. There used to be something 'stopcock grease which was pretty handy, but expensive.
This is a really useful informative experiment. Thanks for your great upload 👍👌
I never realized how toxic gasoline is. I mean sure i assumed its poisonous on the likes of methanol but i didnt realize that every time ive gotten it on my hands that i was getting toluene, xylene and those other things ive never heard of on my skin. There should be more warnings on it.
Xylene doesn’t qualify as “good for you” but is only modestly toxic. It is even used sometimes in dentistry to dissolve gutta percha.
Toluene has more health impacts than I could follow TBH. Weird fact from Wikipedia - smoking (and other things) help eliminate it faster from your body.
I tried this with a stainless steel simple distillation apparatus.. Over open flame. I was confident I was condensing all the vapors and it went well. Would not recommend that technique tho haha so dangerous. Nice job identifying all the fractions..Had no idea that much BTX was in gasoline.
That is some serious confidence in your rig... one teeny tiny leak and it's bad news. Glad it ended safely for you.
This channel is about to blow up, get ready! 😎🚀😎
Keep up the excellent videos man!
Bravo and thank you for your high-quality
I can't be the only person that wants a bunch of those cool bottles.... I want one so I can carry it around as a drink bottle but I'd put a biohazard label on it so nobody touches it. LoL
Washing in the beginning would allow you to wash all fractions in one step. (but it would need drying it all too) Then you could distill it without getting ethanol azeotropes. This could also reduce number of steps when compared to washing all fractions separately (with a separate drying step).
You perhaps could get by with drying only the first fractions like hexanes because water should get distilled as azeotrope with hexanes if there is enough them to get all water out.
I've seen people adding bunch of water to gasoline and it sucked all the ethanol out increasing in volume. No drying was needed as these two dont mix
@Troll McClure Solubility of water in for example hexane is 0.015% or so. Yes, they do not mix. Yet you get wet hexane if you add water and due to azeotrope you won't get water away with distillation easily.
Throw in some sodium etc and you'll get a nasty surprise. Often nonpolar liquids that dont mix get a bit cloudy due to tiny amouns of dissolved water.
That's why it is so sommon to use dessisicants like magnisium sulphate in lab. Often the tiny bit of water is enough to gice you lots of trouble.
@hoggif would calcium oxide do the trick? I've read about people drying ethanol with it
@Troll McClure Depends on how dry you need it. Often most anhydrous saltss like magnesium sulphate, potassium carbonate etc are fine, depending on what you'r drying. For example no carbonates for organic acids etc. It may also depend oni what impurities are ok for you and what not. Often there are multiple methods.
You may also need to think of reactivity if you go for reactive drying agents.
if anyone wanted to recreate this if you dont have a fume hood do it outside and dont use and open flame that could go very bad very quickly.
good video though :)
Failure to do so is simply a Darwin award... In which case the loss isn't great.
@Mad Scientific true sadly there are a bunch of idiots on this world and stuff like that does happen often lol
don’t do this. very flammable dangerous
@Technophant Why? Can't you see we have a population problem? 🤣
Brilliant
It makes more sense to talk about condensation points rather than boiling points in fractional distillation, since that is the direction in which the phase change occurs.
Awesome, very informative! Thanks 👍
Very cool! Good luck with your projects
Nice video! Also that's a nice way to mimick a labjack. Might have to use that!
There was a labjack under it as well but it was so high i had to resort to some special method🥴
Great video. My question is which fraction that you separated is most responsible for gasoline going stale upon storage?
Gasoline goes bad mostly through oxidation, and partly due to evaporation. As you can see, the first fraction already comes over a bit above room temperature, generally this fraction ignites better and aids in ignition of the other parts of the gasoline. If it has evaporated, it can influence the performance of the gasoline. I believe oxidation is mostly caused by alkenes, generally alkanes and aromatics aren't too sensitive to oxidation by oxygen, but alkenes have double bonds that are relatively unstable and oxidize quite easily. Which means that not one fraction is really responsible for it to go stale through oxidation, considering the alkenes are in almost all the fractions.
@Chemiolis I heard once that you could "rejuvenate" old gas by bubbling some propane through/into it to make ignition easier. Is this legit?
@Roonasaur this a somewhat uneducated answer, as I'm not really a chemist, so take it with a grain if salt. But there are different aspects to it:
The propane should definitely be able to dissolve in the gasoline to some degree though the question is to what degree. You'd notice depending on how big the bubbles are that come if when you bubble it. And due to its lower boiling point it would be the first thing to evaporate.
The engine should able to use the added propane just fine. There are vehicles that run on liquid natural gas. My understanding is that the engine is essentially unmodified although the fuel tank and lines are heavily modified to handle the added pressure safely, since the LNG is stored under pressure to remain liquid at regular temperatures.
Adding propane wouldn't reverse the oxidation of alkenes, though. Not sure what effect that has on the overall performance.
In conclusion, it should be possible to dissolve propane into gasoline and it will probably help ignition. However, it probably won't keep the gas fresh for long, and I'm unsure how it will affect other properties, like knock.
@Gameboygenius Thanks. :) I would only really do this in a SHTF scenario, and it was the only gas I could find. So I would use it immediately after.
Seems like it should work . . . and I should probably test it out now to find out, but, you know . . . just haven't had the time.
Very cool, hope your channel grows !
Very good video !! I think it would be very interesting if you repeat this distillation, but .... FROM DIESEL !!
Awsome infomation. I had never thought of what I put through my motorbike fuel system untill I saw this video.
have you any idea why heptane is included with ether in starting fluid ? is it for some lubricant property ?
Nice presentation using awesome lab gear.
Great video! I'm really looking foward for the next
Did you activate your molecular sieves and if so, how? I usually heat on a hi-vac line but I’m curious how you might do it
250 oC in oven will do for most (amateur) purposes IMO, just let them cool down in an evacuated flask (otherwise they will suck up moisture again) - I transfer them into a round bottom flask via powder funnel with metal scoop while still hot, then evacuate the flask and wait for them to cool down. Vacuum oven is better of course, vacuum furnace is the best. But unless you need them absolutely dry, then simple oven will do. If you have electric furnace then I would go for 300+ degC. Note that keeping the sieves dry is difficult - I had some (3A and 4A beads) in sealed plastic bottles and still needed to re-activate them.
Wouldn't some ethanol be carried over at around 80°C as well?
(Pure ethanol boils at 78°C)
The freezing point of heptane is much lower than water, so it could have been separated by freezing the water in it and plucking the ice out
Separatory funnel too, maybe
You can at first add water to take of the ethanol and then do the rest of the distillation
This is beautiful!!!
wtf I thought you're a really big channel, you definitely deserve more views and subscribers :D
Never really thought about gasoline like this, but it was very interesting! I would suggest maybe putting a "DO NOT TRY AT HOME" disclaimer at the beginning for those who might get ideas.
Most of people who watch this are chemists.
@Ray Vanhem nah dude...I just like bubbling stuff and funny smells...
Would you refine a plastic bottle ? Iv seen where they use the fraction as fuel, and I am curious what the fraction actually is
doesn´t that end up as diesel?
meanwhile, an australian stacks two fractional distillation columns on top of each other
Can you use something like this to make old gasoline useful?
Hopefully safer and simpler process.
I can't imagine explaining this to my insurance... also, gasoline is very unique and highly variable fluid in almost every respect. Try not to poison yourself, if I'm to be frank.
Given the current trend in gas prices we might soon need to do it in reverse. But cool video
Gasoline is highly taxed in most countries so its cheaper (aand safer) to buy toulene and heptane etc seperately unless you live in a country with very cheap gasoline like Algeria or Egypt.
NightHawkInLight - 2022-04-15
Yeah! What a great project! Potentially very useful.
Can I ask if any particular segment seems to be responsible for the distinct gasoline smell? Or does the odor seem to come from a blend of everything?
Chemiolis - 2022-04-16
The full smell is definitely a blend, but more volatile low boiling compounds contribute a lot more. I think the first fraction smells the most like gasoline, some are much nastier.
Andrew Mullen - 2023-01-10
Great question I wondered the same👍
Norman Reitzel - 2023-04-13
cyclohexane is "gasoline smell" - very distinctive.
energy - 2023-05-02
cant you weld up some 55 gallon drums end to end and make a refinery out of that?
SkeevieSteve - 2023-08-12
@Chemiolis please please please tell me where you obtain the Square Amber Media-Reagent Glass Bottles you where using to store your distillates, I have been searching for them for so long and havent found a source yet....thank you so much!