The Outcome

All tests had as outcome of the distillery a clear liquid as shown in Picture 4. It didn’t matter if the substance was a mixed brown liquid, red wine or white wine. The lockout of all outcomes looked the same. The smell of the outcome was similar to the original liquid shortly afterwards. This smell changed into a putrid smell. All the liquids had more or less the same smelling in the end. In the school lab I analysed the outcomes in quantity and percentage of alcohol. The analyzation was done with a Mettler Toledo precision scale. From each outcome I took 5 probes of exactly 5 ml and measured it with the precision scale. From the 5 probes I eliminated the minimum and the maximum and calculated the average of the other 3 probes. With this average I calculated the density of the probe. By using the Table 4 is it possible to find out the value of Vol% of ethanol.

For example: If the density of the probe is 0.99113 than there is 6% ethanol inside. The calculation of the probe density by cancelling the minimum and maximum value and using the average of three probes should minimize the errors from weighing. In Table 5 are the results of the analyzation listed.

Conclusion of the Outcome

The Quantity

The exact quantity of the second test is undisclosed because the starting volume is unknown. Therefore the proportion can't be shown. The third test had 4.5 l of wine in the beginning. In the end there were 275 ml left. This leads to a ratio of 0.06 from the original liquid. The fourth test had a mass of 5 l in the beginning and as a result there was a quantity of 305 ml. The ratio was 0.05. The second one had a better ratio because the quantity in the beginning was lower. These values are so high because the weather was very sunny and therefore a lot of the original liquid could vaporize and condense afterwards. The next two tests had just a small outcome because the weather was much colder. In the fifth test the proportion was 4.5 l to 69 ml which results in a ratio of 0.01. The sixth test had in the beginning a mass of 5 l. The outcome was 9 ml with a ratio of 0.002. During the sixth test it was colder than during the fifth test and the weather wasn’t sunny anymore. The quantities of the tests have a correlation with the length of the time period and the amount of sunny days during the tests.

The Percentage

Test 4 and 5 show that the distillery can principally work. The percentage of alcohol of the outcome is higher than the substance from the beginning. As demonstrated in Figure 8 the operation temperature of the distillery between 20 and 25°C should evaporate more alcohol than water. The Figure 8 shows 2 to 3 times more alcohol than water.

When two times more alcohol than water evaporates it should be possible to get with test 4 (white wine 11%) an outcome of maximally 19.8% and if three times more alcohol evaporates maximally 27% of alcohol.

Formula: 𝑚𝑎𝑥.𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 = (x∗alcohol percentage substance∗100)/(x∗alcohol percentage substance+water percentage substance)

with x = factor how much more alcohol than water evaporates in this system. X is between 2 and 3. The measurement shows only 14% alcohol as a result of test 4. This test ran over 9 days. In this time there were only a few days of bad weather but this few days can influence a lot. This theory is confirmed by the results of test 2, 3 and 6 where the alcohol concentration is only 8% to 9% and during these tests ran a lot of bad weather days were included. Some reasons why the percentage of alcohol could have been reduced during the tests:

• distillery was not seal enough – alcohol escaped of the distillery
• connection between the pipes of the distillery and the transport pipes wasn't good enough and rain water could enter
• connection between the transport pipe and the bottle wasn't seal and rain water dropped into the bottles

It is not possible to get a final answer of all the open questions. Additional tests could give the answer when the weather is much warmer again with a lot of sunny days. Also the distillery should be optimized.