Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: John Chapman on 06/02/2009 10:20:40

Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: John Chapman on 06/02/2009 10:20:40: I have just thought of a new product. It is a portable 'still', fed from a catheter. The idea is to distil the alcohol you have just drunk out of your urine. This would be fed intravenously back into your bloodstream via a cannula.

With such a machine would it be possible to enjoy one night in the pub but spend the rest of your life pissed?
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Chemistry4me on 06/02/2009 11:06:43: What is the point of urine if what you drink in just comes out the same at the other end?
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Chemistry4me on 06/02/2009 11:07:16: The alcohol wil be broken down...
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: John Chapman on 06/02/2009 11:18:20: Hi Chem4me

I think this just might be another one of those occasions where you have shown me up for saying something stupid! [::)]

All the same, if you are arrested for suspected drinking & driving you are then required to give either a blood or urine sample at the police station. At least that's how it works in the UK. If they are not looking directly for alchohol what is it they are hoping to see? Do you know what the products of alchohol break-down are?
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Chemistry4me on 06/02/2009 11:25:45: There will be traces of alcohol in your urine and blood sample, but this amount is so minute that you will probably need (I'm just guessing here) 50 litres of urine to get the amount of alcohol that came from a beer. So you'll be distilling all day for 1 beer! Not to mention pissing all day and damaging your liver and what not [:)]
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Phil1907 on 06/02/2009 11:30:33: I'll clarify that alcohol will not be "broken down:" if distilled. It will be largely metabolized following ingestion and won't be in the urine in concentration significant for recovery.

Not aware of a forensic urine test for alcohol - tho' there's certainly a blood test.
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: John Chapman on 19/02/2009 01:45:51: A thought has just occurred to me. When you get drunk it is because of alcohol in your bloodsteam. That's alcohol, not the products of digested alcohol. So the alcohol must pass into the bloodsteam, yes? And thence into the bladder. Is this not so?
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: neilep on 19/02/2009 02:11:09: You would get pissed on piss !!

How novel is that ? [;)]
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: lancenti on 19/02/2009 03:33:06: If I understand correctly, the enzyme responsible for the metabolism of ethanol found in alcoholic beverages is Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH) and the reaction is:

CH₃CH₂OH → CH₃CHO + 2 [H]

Which will then eventually be oxidized further to ethanoic acid.

I suppose you could test for those two.
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Chemistry4me on 19/02/2009 04:24:00: Quote from: John Chapman on 19/02/2009 01:45:51
So the alcohol must pass into the bloodsteam, yes? And thence into the bladder. Is this not so?
Yes, the alcohol passes into the bloodstream. But don't forget the blood goes into your one/two kidneys before they can go to the bladder [:)]
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Bored chemist on 19/02/2009 07:00:17: You could recylce the alcohol in urine, or in breath for that matter but it wouldn't help much. The liver destroys the stuff quite effectively and you would have to replace the alcohol it oxidises.
Title: Can you distil alcohol out of urine?
Post by: Don_1 on 19/02/2009 08:25:11: We have a pub up the road which I think is already doing this, only I don't think they bother with the still, they just serve up neat piss from the bog! Well that's what it tastes like anyways. It may also be mixed with the piss of the local Gnats.