Hey guys,
I've been working on this project for a while now (4 weeks? Idk maybe a bit less). What I was looking for is to recreate an esterification reaction we did at school that didn't really work (I am in Year 12, doing Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry). So yeah, but the problem is some substances like butanoic (butyric) acid can only be purchased from school lab suppliers and I really can't do that.
So after researching (I found like 10 different sources and bookmarked them automatically), what I did is I tried to ferment rancid butter, parmesan cheese and sour milk together in an air-tight jar in order to allow obligate anaerobic bacteria to ferment the aqueous mixture. I waited about a week and a half then added extra sugar and some more smelly cheese. When it's sunny it seems to be working faster but I don't know. Anyway my idea so far is to open the jar after about 2 weeks, extract the butyric acid by filtering the mixture through some cotton repeatedly, removing the big creamed fat layers formed each time and redoing it etc. until I end up with a smelly colourless liquid. I really, really did my mining for this project on the internet and it seems like most folks think distillation is best for purifying the acids, but obviously I only have one kettle and I really don't appreciate the idea of distilling butanoic acid in a kettle that's used by family for tea. So I think I am gonna stick to filtration...
BTW speaking of kettles, I thought I might just be able to extract enough calcium carbonate from the limescale layer formed in the bottom of the kettle for it to be able to undergo a displacement reaction with dilute hydrochloric acid and form calcium chloride? Because calcium chloride is very soluble in cold water and it can help to remove water from the final aqueous butyric acid solution. But at the same time, I really don't want to use the limescale-removing agents as then I would be introducing more chemicals which is literally the last thing I want to do...
So do you reckon filtering it through cotton several times then using a DIY separatory funnel to remove any remaining layers of stearic / oleic / linoleic acid could work?
Also, I know that C. Acetobutylicum switches to a metabolic path that makes butanol and acetone instead of butyric acid if in more acidic condition (pH < 5). But that's not necessarily a problem for me I think because I don't think it's gonna reach that pH and also because for my purposes, I don't need a high level of purity. In fact butanol being produced could be a good thing because my project deals with making esters and having some butanol would just mean that I end up producing butyl butyrate in the final esterification reaction, which smells of strawberry / pineapple (just like my desired product).
Yeah, I also found that I have some white distilled vinegar at home as well as salicylic acid and lactic acid medicine for acne treatment. So I managed to separated the salicylic acid ( i think?) because I want to make ethyl salicylate (wintergreen. methyl salicylate is better but i don't have methanol) and ethyl acetate as well as ethyl butyrate.
As for the Fisher esterification reaction itself, I've prepared some sodium carbonate solution by thermally decomposing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) in boiling water (just didn't have a bunsen burner so i had to do it this way). That reaction definitely went well because lots of CO2 and water was given out. I calculated the amounts needed roughly for 0.5 M solution of sodium carbonate, which I'll use to form the ester layer in the end (remove any acid catalyst residues)
But the thing is, I haven't bought any acid yet. Do you reckon hydrochloric acid will work? I don't have sulfuric acid lol, no way. I'd only really imagine that batteries might contain sulfuric acid but no way I am handling that stuff- way too dangerous.
The only problem is there's no way on earth i can procure industrial muriatic acid. The only option available at the moment is to use dilute hydrochloric acid from over the counter in hardware stores, at concentration of about maybe 20 ppm max. Do you think if I just use x10 the meal of dilute hydrochloric acid on the expense of less water in the actual esterification then it would be equivalent to a catalytic amount (2 drops of concentrated hydrochloric acid?). Also, if it is enough, do you think that warming some ethanol in a hot water bath for about 5 minutes would work? (i have plenty of 75% concentrated ethanol for hand sanitising purposes so it's fine) would do the trick?
Hey, I appreciate this is a really really long procedure ( I guess if it doesn't work I should just try making some ghee and working upwards from there). But can anybody confirm / debunk any piece of this procedure?
THANK YOUUUUUUUU in advance!!