No sulfites please

Last month I read about some enterprising soul making moonshine out of CO₂. It being early spring, and under the initial stages of quarantine, my thoughts turned to Venus. Venus' challenge is - the surface is dry, and alcohols need hydrogen. On 31 March, I mused about swapping expensive water for some other compound. We could dissolve that in CO₂ as liquid, which is after all supposed to be a solvent.

Venus would provide sulfuric acid or - better - hydrogen sulfide. 2 CO₂ + 3 H₂S could yield C₂H₅OH. From that, I expect the three sulfur ions and three oxygen would recombine to various sulfur oxides.

Actually various CO₂ / H₂S mixes should yield all manner of alcohols and glycols.

H₂S is in no danger of freezing at 250 K; that part of the diagram is like a near-vertical wall. The alcohol, also, shouldn't freeze - nor should sulphuric acid, if that's made (we're planning on that breaking up again). If water is created in that mix, that will freeze out eventually, but ... water / alcohol mixes stay wet in your freezer (I'm told vodka freezes at 246 K). I expect the same of trace water in 250 K CO₂ alongside the booze we're trying to make.

Anyway if I've got the mix right, at the end I should have a tipple that Contains Sulfites. I figure Üllo.

On 3 April I questioned the saturation-point of H₂S gas dissolved in pure liquid CO₂. That is: can we ever get a CO₂:H₂S ratio of 2:3. May have to add extra solvent just to submerge the stink gas. Again, I don't recommend sulphuric acid. Extra water, neither; I worry it might react with the hydrogen-sulfide to make acids and free hydrogen. So, like Thror's Ring, it needs booze to make booze.

... and then last night, I had a bad feeling about C₂H₅SH. I looked it up and - yea, it exists. It's the mercaptan ethyl. Not the most toxic of chemicals, compared to other sulphur compounds; but also not something we want to ingest.

I declare this project beyond my abilities as a chemist, and will recommend using water on Venus to make this sort of alcohol. Or just fermenting sugars from the farm bubbles.