Is there a way to separate salt and sugar that has mixed together?
by 
Happy Biohazard
ANSWERS: 4
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A bit of hope from this web site... http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may98/892090117.Ch.r.html
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The above link has good ideas but as it admits, it gives no method for the edible recovery of both the salt and the sugar. I propose that a gas centrifuge, actually many many gas centrifuges could separate the salt from the sugar using thier different densities. The problem being gas centrigues are really expensive and not available at home. I propose a method of using the differences in density could solve this problem, although never completly. In the end, even using the best cetrifuges. there would be 0.001 or so percent sugar in the salt and 0.001 percent salt in the sugar.
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You just evaporate the water and then use any number of precision instruments to separate the different densities/physical characteristics of the two remaining elements. Using a microscope, even a grade school student could manually separate them at that point. Sifting through 1 cup of each just to prove the point though would be better left for college where a grant could be obtained to help cover the cost.
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Yes. Sugar is soluble in alcohols. Salt is not. So if you add alcohol to the mixture you would dissolve the sugar and leave the salt behind as a solid. You can then filter the solution to get the salt. If you then evaporate the alcohol off you will be left with the sugar.
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