Separating Salt from Alchohol

Please name the salt.

Does the drink have to remain drinkable following the procedure?

What sort of volumes and flowrates are involved?

What temperatures and pressures?

Please describe the equipment that contains the fluid.

Please describe the ambient conditions.

Please describe the utility services available.

Salt is normal table salt.

Yes , remain drinkable after process.

ambient conditions: standard room temp and pressure.

Please feel free to suggest different methods for different set up as long as it does not use as much energy as distillation and complicated pressure tank.

Lower the temperature below -1.5degC. The water will form salt-free ice on the top of the liquid, leaving the salt in solution below. Remove the ice and re-melt. Drink the melted ice.

In an Alc"h"oholic drink? Where will the alcohol be then? Would it not stay with the salt that does not freeze?

Oh man its Friday, but I never put salt in my drinks. Sounds like an urgent problem.

There was no specification in earlier postings about where the alcohol was to end up.

It is possible and even likely that some of the melted ice will contain alcohol. There will be very little salt in the melted ice, though, and it will be drinkable. It's got to be worth a lab-scale trial.

Without flowrates it is difficult to decide what to do with the liquid phase below the ice and how to convert it into a continuous process. As it is sort-of-like 'seawater with vodka in it' after this, any more suggestions apart from reverse osmosis <hic>?

Hang on - how is all this salt getting into the drink in the first place? One ought to apply Japanese-style thinking and correct this fault first.

GA, looks simple enough! Thanks

Will not work. When freezing starts, only water will become ice, leaving the remaining liquid more concentrated in salt and alcohol. Alcohol freeze at -114 deg C. As you freeze more , more water will be removed until The solution is saturated in salt , about 26 %.

The original poster only specified that the separated materials remained drinkable. The intended location of the alcohol post-separation was not specified.

The alcohol won't freeze.

Put a raw potato in the drink - it will absorb the salt.

Nice taste to the drink, but probably less alcohol loss!

Do you know by what mechanism raw potato will absorb salt only and not other?

Salt is normal table salt.

Yes , remain drinkable after process.

ambient conditions: standard room temp and pressure.

Please feel free to suggest different methods for different set up as long as it does not use as much energy as distillation and complicated pressure tank.

We've heard.

Why should we continue this silly game????

I heard once that dried fruit have an affinity to soak up salt. Kind of an Osmose process?!

But I am pretttty sure it will soak up the alc as well.

Why did you put salt in that drink in the first place?

_{(haha thought it was sugar I bet!)}

Having salt in a labelled sugar container is contrary to the CoSHH Regulations.

Selecting a labelled salt container for use instead of the sugar container smacks of inadequate operative training and an inadequate Quality Management structure - presumably this operation has just failed its ISO9001 audit?

ISO what? Not in my kitchen. Always taste before you chuck it in.

Nothing worse than a drink that has too much salt in it!

Do we know if this question was for home or industrial use?

<...if this question was for home or industrial use...>

know care...

I'm not 100 percent sure this will work, but you might give it a try:

Pour the liquid into a large, clean bottle that has been thoroughly dried inside. Tightly cap the bottle.

Roll, shake and swish the liquid all around the insides of the bottle, then invert the bottle and let it sit cap-side down. Some of the liquid on the sides of the bottle will evaporate, leaving behind a residue of salt. Some of the liquid that has evaporated will re-condense with the rest of the liquid around the inverted cap. Once the inside walls of the bottle have thoroughly dried, open the cap and pour out the slightly less salty liquid.

Although I am not convinced there is a need for this, reverse osmosis filtration will work.

I'd just order a drink with no salt, thanks!

Dilute it with lots more alcohol; then enjoy! (Put on the Jimmy Buffett record.)

Drink it and let you body sort it out!

What the heck. Just put it on your chips (fries).

Oh c'mon you guys... what would McGyver do? Get a battery (if a potato isn't strong enough) and a couple of wires to dangle electrodes on either side of the drink, and suck up those sodium and chloride ions?

You can cover the glass with a saucer in the meantime, to keep the alcohol from evaporating (one can only hope!)

McGyver would drink the drink, salt and all, grab the girl, run away into the woods and have his way with her.

He's a salty dog, you know!

_{(Come on! There's always a girl, isn't there?)}

_{Of course there's always a girl, it's the second law of tv drama thermodynamics.}

However the point of his actions is always to impress the girl with manly prowess. Astonishing manoevers of some kind are required. Any putz can swipe a lady's salty drink and carry her off into the bushes. Think about the OP, man. Here too, I suspect that the whole point of the endeavor is that a girl is to be impressed.

The girl may even be a cook (why not), and may even know about the potato trick to salvage a salty stew. However a raw potato in an alcoholic drink, salty or not, will surely suck the raw potato juices right out into the drink in exchange for some alcohol and salt, as I well know from extensive experience making fresh herb tinctures. This is not only likely to taste bad, but there's nothing so unglamorous as a drink garnished with a wizened potato.

The date who chucks raw potato in her spoiled drink and insists that it is now fit for her consumption... would have done better with the gulp grab and run.

If he could only get most of the chloride ions out, a little extra sodium wouldn't affect the taste too much. Doable, with a 9V and a bit of wire and tinfoil (aluminum I mean)? or not, McLyn?

Yes, well, I can see how breaking out a 9V battery, some bits of wire and a scrap of Al foil would impress any date!

They'll salivate when you unfold some metal screen door screen, a 6V lantern battery and jumper cables to desalinate a whole picture of Margaritas at once.

I'd rather have a pitcher than a picture of Margaritas. But that's just me...

I knew it didn't look right, but my mind just didn't care.

You could try.....

Pour it into round plastic containers (like pop bottles), a bit less than 1/2 full.

Lay them on their side in the freezer.

Crank it right down as low as you can (unless you have access to an ultralow- then go easy).

Come back a day later. Expect a good chance the liquid will be on top of an ice layer. If it is, pour off the liquid & taste it. You could refreeze this if needed (Ditch any ice formed this time).

If it's ok, pour it all off. let the ice melt. Put it back in the freezer, refreeze until it's about 3/4 ice. Dump the liquid, melt the ice & add back to the other.

If nothing else, this is guaranteed to give flat beer.........

I like the Potato idea. Cooks drop a peeled potato in their (sauce, soup, gravy etc. etc. etc.) bases when it is too salty. The potato absorbs the salt.

Do you give the potatoes goggles for their eyes?

Easy....

Lick wrist apply salt.......salt is not in alcohal.

pour shot of tequila and drink.

Lick wrist to add seperated salt then bite lime for addes flavor

Then kiss pretty girl...........the last part always works in the movies.

Actually, it's salt first, then tequila, then lime.

Never inhale immediately after ingesting the tequila because this will make the drink seem hotter/more bitter. Exhale first, to flush the mouth of fumes.

At the first signs of invisibility, you should stop drinking and take a short nap.

Ahhh thank you no wonder my shots always tasted funny...what about the pretty girl.

Well, the girls all get prettier at closing time.

_{(Thanks to Mickey Gilley for that ditty)}

This one might be a little off your intended mark, but bear with the idea.

If you add plaster of paris to the mix, then the water will bind into that, causing it to set. (The salt present will actually accelerate this.)

You will then have only liquid pure alcohol and the salt. Salt would not dissolve in the alcohol, so the liquid poured off would be relatively pure alcohol.

The solids (plaster and salt crystals) could then be filtered from the alchol.

Just a thought.

thanks and nice post...