SNCITO7 - The Chemistry of Ethanol Mystery Cache

     This geocache was placed for SNCITO7. Please don't look for it before  April 23, 2016. Every SNCITO7 attendees that log the find on April 23 can claim a shared-FTF.

     The cache is not at posted coordinates.  You’ll need to solve a simple chemistry problem (for an 11th grader) to get to the final container.  Most people assume I was a math teacher as I love trigonometry.  But no, I am torturing students with atoms, molecules and chemical reactions.

     Greenfield Ethanol started its operations in 2008 and reached it’s full capacity in 2009.  They are using corn to produce bulk industrial ethanol and fuel ethanol.  Corn contains a lot of starch that can be broken into glucose or sucrose.  Then, a digestive process will transform the sugar in ethanol through a digestive process.  Here’s the reaction :

C₁₂H₂₂O_{11 (s)} + H₂O _(l) → 4 C₂H₅OH _(l) + 4 CO_{2 (g)}

Performing the above reaction with an 100 % yield, you are starting with 81.552 g of sucrose and an excess of water.

• The number of grams of ethanol formed is your north’s minutes.

• The number of liters of carbon dioxide formed at a temperature of 45.00°C and a pressure of 86.555 kPa is your west’s minutes

Sounds so simple doesn’t it!  Good luck!