Quantitative Alcohol Assay

Ethanol is produced from various kinds of substrates, and its purification is critical for its use in industry and health purposes. Presence of some impurities such as methanol are not acceptable due to its health-related problems. Most of the methods used for the quality control of ethyl alcohol are based on physical, chemical tests and GC analysis. The results are always compared to the acceptable specifications of ethanol in different pharmacopeias. Normally acceptable ethyl alcohols should contain NLT 92% by weight and NLT 94.9% by volume of ethanol at 15.56 ^oC (USP)

Ethyl alcohol analysis tests

A group of physical and chemical test will be carried out for each sample including;

• Physical properties (clarity, miscibility, flame test…etc)
• Specific gravity
• Limit of non-volatile residues
• Organic impurities (using GC/FID)
• UV absorbance
• Acidity and alkalinity
• Special chemical tests (such as iodoform test)

Output data

A certificate of analysis including all test results and estimation of ethanol content (relative percentage v/v) of the provided sample