heat developed during carbon polishing

[Uncle Jesse]

Finnish
11/25/02 08:41 AM
Heat developed during carbon polishing

I noticed that the pipe gets warm when I pour in the alcohol. Where does this heat come from? Is it friction, when alcohol pushes air out of the carbon?
Since no reaction is taking place, no heat should be developed. Where is this energy taken from?

brought over from the old message boards:


Anonymous
11/30/02 12:00 PM
Re: Heat developed during carbon polishing [re: Finnish]

There is no chemical reaction, but there is a physical one as the higher molecular weight compounds mixed with the ethanol bond to the activated carbon. This results in a lower energy state for the mixture and the heat generated is the difference between the pre- and post-filtration energy states. To clean the carbon for reuse, you would heat it to break the bonds and then strip out the undesirable compounds with a clean gas like steam or nitrogen.