Vodka from petroleum: the standard trick of alcohol moguls

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Drinkers claim that vodka is an exalted noble drink, because it has no taste, and if it is drunk like water, then it is generally of the highest class. We will not list the boring facts about the dangers of alcohol, which everyone already knows, about the general poisoning of the body, a blow to the gene pool and the gradual moral decay of the individual.

Let's understand the so-called. factor of "purity" of vodka, which in fact turns out to be very doubtful.

The modern technology of vodka production is fundamentally different from the classical method, so those who like to quote Mendeleev and the classics regarding vodka can leave their theses with them. The reality is different.

In the 19th century, to create a product, vodka was distilled in special double cubes, or triple cubes, or, in especially stubborn cases of striving for quality, in five-fold sublimation cubes.

Currently, the product is made in continuous columns, the product is a mixture of rectified (rectified alcohol containing at least 4.43% water, boils at 78, 15 ° C ) and water. All advertisements that “our vodka is made from grain alcohol is a marketing intrigue (marketing is the science of how to convince you that you need some unknown thing so much that you have to buy it).

Chemistry lesson

One hundred years ago, kerosene was the main end product of refining. In fact, it is the lightest and most accessible fraction from a long list of products of sublimation of hydrocarbon raw materials. Kerosene was used to illuminate the gloomy life of the dawn of the industrial era and, for the time being, the primitive technology suited everyone.

Time passed … A car park appeared. I began to need gasoline. And the "light" part of oil raw materials began to be taken more intensively. As the needs of the post-agricultural civilization grew, the technology of processing "black gold" was deepened and improved. After the birth of the processes of cracking and pyrolysis, "eternal fires" were lit on tall pipes for petrochemists. It burned gaseous by-products of deep processing. The most famous of these is ethylene. Due to its molecular structure, he, like a real womanizer, easily and naturally enters into connection with other substances, giving rise to a motley "chemical kids". The legendary A. M. Butlerov, and back in 1873, having married ethylene with sulfuric acid, he obtained ethyl sulfuric acid. Having treated it with water, with the look of a real magician, the luminary of organic chemistry showed the amazed inhabitant synthetic ethyl alcohol.

It seemed that the ice had broken, and from now on the alcoholic river of kerosene oil would rush into the vastness of the country in an endless stormy and foamy stream. Whatever it is. It took almost 80 years until the old laboratory experience received a production registration. Only in the 50s of the twentieth century, technologists were able to debug the processes of capturing gases from cracking and pyrolysis of oil and give Butler's invention a second life. Organize the rebirth of vodka from oil.

For the sake of fairness, we note that high-quality Russian vodka is actually made from grain, but its cost is quite prohibitive. And, besides, dear friend, if you buy 0, 7 for 4500r and think that "booze, but high quality, in honor of the birthday blah blah blah", then it is very likely that you take a beautiful a bottle of swill worth 300r. They fake everything, everyone sells counterfeit goods, even all sorts of advertised "hypermarkets".

In vodka alcohols, such as "extra" and "highest purification" according to GOST, the use of potatoes, beet sugar and molasses is allowed as raw materials. However, enterprises associated with the medical industry use medical alcohol for the preparation of vodka, made from an oil refined product - ethylene. Scary tales that modern vodka is made from oil, as a result, turn out not to be tales, but reality. The same "petroleum" alcohol is used in the production of pharmaceutical tinctures, which is not so scary and, in general, normal, because the purpose of these tinctures is slightly different.

Officially producing vodka from medical alcohol (that is, in fact, from oil) is FORBIDDEN, but as they say, who will ask? The laws of capitalism (about profit and crime) have not been canceled. In a number of regions, vodka is generally made from hydrolysis alcohol. And what is this alcohol made of? That's right, from sawdust. Another myth about "sawdust vodka" turns out to be a reality.

In the petroleum alcohol market, the tone is set Azerbaijan … Indeed, due to the quality of low-sulfur "light" Caspian oil, the share of ethylene in pyrolysis gases can reach 25%. It is Azerbaijan's cheap oil alcohol that is the basis of the economic power of Kazakh bootleggers who flooded with cheap vodka kerosene oil regions of Russia adjacent to Kazakhstan. Another major player in the edible synthetic alcohol market is China … But its share in the oil pie is small. The bulk of Chinese synthetics are of a hydrolytic nature, or, more simply, they are chasing from sawdust … But it is also the cheapest. Sawdust grain is not easy to grasp. With regret, it can be stated that not a single distillery remained on the territory of our country, the equipment of which would be sharpened for potato raw materials. There are practically no production facilities working on molasses and other wastes from the sugar industry. The lion's share of molasses is absorbed by yeast production. In the future, there remains feed grain, oil and hydrolysis of wood waste.

It is impossible to dispute the fact that vodka was and remains the best-selling strong alcoholic beverage in the world, with total sales of 450 million decaliters. The second place is occupied by the traditional Anglo-Saxon distillate - whiskey, the global sales volume of which is much less, about 200 million decaliters. The market has prospects for slight growth, the volumes of conditioned grain are not unlimited, but rather very limited, so there will be kerosene oil. Although the people like it, of course, wheat. Poor quality vodka is dangerous not because of the alcohol component itself (C2H5OH), but because of impurities that much more toxic than alcohol (and alcohol is a toxic poison).

It should be noted that even potato or beetroot distillates are very difficult to purify from fusel oils and impurities, what can we say about "oil and sawdust".

Advanced alcohol consumers know that as soon as a new brand of vodka appears on the market, its quality is more or less acceptable, the head does not hurt after it, the roof does not blow. But after a few months, the situation changes. Chemists will immediately try to put an analogy with the AAS underground, when first a working product is released that makes a name for itself, after which it is replaced by dummies or prepa with lower concentrations. But in fact, in the case of vodka, everything is simpler: during filtration, charcoal or silver filters are used. After a while, the filters become littered with slag, but no one is in a hurry to change them, because "production efficiency is increased." In this case, the vodka will still be cleaned, but with the help of another very effective filter - your liver. All of the above applies, of course, to all drinks that are made from vodka. The author does not call anyone to anything, because each has its own nerve knot between the ears.