Powdered Alcohol

http://www.bevlaw.com/bevlog/alcohol-beverages-generally/powdered-alcohol

by pwg • 12 years ago

63 46 12 years ago

politician• 12 years ago

From Palchohol's FAQ, "5. How is it made? If we told you, we'd have to shoot you. We are in the process of patenting it and it is currently patent pending."

So, guess I'll just wait to read the patent then.

This product is way too "bro" for me. It's like Soylent for Jocks.

zacinbusiness• 12 years ago

Right? Because destroying your liver and making an ass of yourself is too difficult and too expensive. So let's make an easily concealable, I'm guessing odor free version of idiot juice so that alcoholics can even more easily kill themselves.

gadders• 12 years ago

But drug legalisation is a good thing?

mrmondo• 12 years ago

Website is down - From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_powder

nitrogen2• 12 years ago

I've wondered if a similar process could produce "dehydrated water". Powdered water that could be liberated by adding a small amount of some catalyst could be better for transportation since it wouldn't slosh around in a storage tank.

arjn• 12 years ago

What ? Are you serious or is this some kind of joke that I'm missing.

"dehydrated water" !!

MertsA• 12 years ago

...No you can't really make something like that where you end up with pure water and the catalyst but you could in theory just transport a hydrated salt and get the water out later but it just doesn't make sense to do that instead of just transporting the water. Also, pretty much any time you're transporting water, it being a liquid is beneficial. To prevent a ton of sloshing all you need is some baffles.

philtar• 12 years ago

http://www.bernardfoods.com/foodservice/beverages/images/deh...

jontro• 12 years ago

Cucumber is 95% water. Would that do?

kyllo• 12 years ago

I'm pretty sure that if you could add water to something other than water to get more water than you had before, that would violate the law of conservation of matter.

chm5• 12 years ago

Your username makes me think you're trolling. Are you asking a genuine question or messing around?

gjm11• 12 years ago

There is a solid substance from which water can be liberated after transportation. Unfortunately, you need to keep it quite cold to prevent premature liberation of the water.

analog31• 12 years ago

Polywater...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polywater

acjohnson55• 12 years ago

Probably the most efficient way would be something you could burn to yield water, like a hydrocarbon or carbohydrate, if you had to liberate the water by chemical process. Or you could use something to contain the water in a solid structure, like a sponge or plant tissue. None of these options makes a lick of sense to simply accomplish transportation of water.

chm5• 12 years ago

Under atmospheric pressure, ethanol melts at -114C. One way to "powderize" it is to make it into an ester, which in this case would be an ethyl ester[1,2]. Hydrolysis of the ester will occur under acidic conditions which would be brought about by dissolution of carbonic acid. The latter decomposes in acidic conditions to form CO2 and 2 protons. Ester hydrolysis in acidic conditions is reversible. This would explain why they claim their product to contain ~50% ethanol by weight: they need a lot so that the equilibrium concentration is at around 5%.

Assuming my guessing is correct, the innovation here is in the ester. They must have used a "safe, food grade" carboxylic acid to pass certifications. All the powder contains is probably:

- Food dye

- Flavor

- Carbonic acid

- Some ethyl ester

EDIT: A human stomach is also acidic. Ester hydrolysis in alkaline conditions isn't reversible (saponification). If our stomach were alkaline, drinking Palcohol would be very dangerous. The alcohol content in the stomach would skyrocket even if it were low in the drink.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester [2]: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/esters/hydrolysis.ht...

chm5• 12 years ago

I can't re-edit my post. Here's a related patent[1] which they might own. The ethanol is apparently trapped by cyclodextrins, I was wrong.

[1] http://www.google.com/patents/US3795747

aray• 12 years ago

I'd doubt this because the rate of de-complexation is usually pretty low (which is why it's useful as a mechanism for slowed drug delivery -- the cyclodextrin-complexed compounds move around much more easily than the usually-hydrophobic drug de-complexes from the cyclodextrin).

Edit: reading the application -- this doesn't appear to be cyclodextrins, but some configuration of small-chain length glucose polymers (mentioned 1-20 with an average of 10).

Paul-ish• 12 years ago

As a note, that patent expired years ago. (Patents last at most 21 years). That IP is in the public domain now.

refurb• 12 years ago

Esters don't hydrolyze that quickly under acidic conditions, especially if the carboxylic acid is bulky at all. Also, some esters have CNS effects all by themselves.

I'm pretty sure the gov't would crack down on any form of alcohol that was an ester since it's a new chemical compound and not ethyl alcohol.

chm5• 12 years ago

That's why I assumed the innovation was in the carboxylic part of the ester. Seems like they sell ethanol adsorbed onto (cyclo)dextrins.

beloch• 12 years ago

I confess, I've accidentally inhaled a bit too hard from a glencairn glass full of scotch tilted a bit too far towards my nose. That sucked pretty hard, but inhaling this powder would probably be a lot worse. Also, this product seems to be targeted at the same demographic that posts youtube videos of themselves trying to snort cinnamon.

I predict hilarity.

zymhan4• 12 years ago

I predict overdoses. Something tells me that it'd be way easier to consume too much alcohol too quickly if it's in powdered form.

noir_lord• 12 years ago

That problem should correct itself over several thousand generations, check back in 40,000 years ;).

gus_massa• 12 years ago

The concentration of alcohol in the common beverages is approximately: beer: 5%, wine 15%, vodka 50% (the exact numbers varies a lot).

It’s not possible to “dehydrate” the pure 100% alcohol to reduce its volume. It must be trapped with some kind of additive to make it look like a powder. Also, the powder has small holes, so it’s ¿20%? air and a few % of additives and the rest is alcohol. Let’s just assume that it’s 100% alcohol to simplify the discussion.

So, 1 glass full of “powdered alcohol” will be equivalent to at most 2 glasses of vodka (3 glasses of weak vodka, 1.5 glasses of strong vodka). It will not be equivalent to 10 glasses of vodka.

(With the same calculation, it will be equivalent to 7 glasses of wine or 20 glasses of beer. But people usually drink vodka in smaller glasses and beer in bigger glasses.)

Anyway, given the abundance of morons, I also predict that there will be overdoses, but this “powdered alcohol” is roughly as dangerous as vodka.

drakaal• 12 years ago

They should Call it VIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN635IDZcrU

knodi123• 12 years ago

I read a summary of this product somewhere else. "For when you're going into a place that doesn't allow you to bring alcohol from outside, but doesn't mind large quantities of mysterious white powder."

M2Ys4U• 12 years ago

I'm sure that it'd be way easier to conceal half a dozen sachets of this stuff than a six pack of beer.

Powdered Alcohol

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