# Salting out recommended procedure

**URL:** <https://discourse.eom.dev/t/salting-out-recommended-procedure/434>\
**Category:** Projects\
**Created:** [November 28, 2025, 4:48am UTC](https://discourse.eom.dev/t/salting-out-recommended-procedure/434 "2025-11-28T04:48:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![eric](https://discourse.eom.dev/user_avatar/discourse.eom.dev/eric/32/610_2.png) [@eric](https://discourse.eom.dev/u/eric)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2025, 11:15pm UTC](https://discourse.eom.dev/t/salting-out-recommended-procedure/434/2 "2025-11-29T23:15:09Z")

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I will probably need to revisit this reply a few times to arrive at a sufficient response. First of all, I want to add a link to the original ethanol distillation project, and I’m going to move this post into #Projects so they are categorized together.

> [@Ethanol Production and Distillation alembic](https://discourse.eom.dev/t/ethanol-production-and-distillation/343):
>
> bookmark ITT I am documenting a process for producing high purity ethanol (~95%) through distillation of fermented sugar solution. The first entry is a wiki page outlining the current standard recipe. Experiments and developments can be found in the subsequent thread, where readers are also invited to ask questions and share experience. warning This post contains affiliate links. This site receives commissions upon sales generated from such links. Thank you for your support! [https://…](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol)

Also, just as a side note, Discourse has a plugin for writing equations in posts.

> **[Discourse Math](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-math/65770)**
>
> :discourse2: Summary Discourse Math uses MathJax (default) or KaTeX to render maths in your Discourse forum. 📖 Install Guide This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately. Enabling Math The...

> [@solidheron](#):
>
> ### Procedure
> 
> 1. **Clarify the starting ethanol mixture**
> 
> - Strain out any solids from the starting ethanol mixture using a coffee filter, **or**
> - Distill it once to remove most solids and starting ethanol mixture

Immediately caught my eye that distillation is still part of the procedure. I had to distill my mixture multiple times as well, though.

> [@solidheron](#):
>
> The recommended boiling temperature for ethanol distillation is 78 °C, but I am convinced that, in a simple setup, the concentration cannot go much above 70% ethanol by volume. Multiple sources claim that distillation can reach around 95% ethanol by volume, but I remain skeptical due to the lack of direct verification and the possibility that my ignorance on mechanism, such as fractional distillation, that improves the alcohol content. I can confirm that, using molecular sieves and desiccants, it is possible to obtain ethanol very close to 100% by volume

That is pretty much exactly what happened in my original distillation. I think we calculated ~70% concentration through fractional distillation. Perhaps the full procedure for at-home production of anhydrous ethanol would be fractional distillation, salting out, then desiccants.

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