Below is an abstract of a submission to the patent office of a device that would measure the concentration and temperature of a liquid using reflectance. The abstract does a good job of describing the proposed device and method so I'll let it do the talking...
"An apparatus and method for temperature and concentration measurement at liquid surfaces using reflectance. The apparatus includes a light source which produces a measurement light beam, and also includes a detector. The measurement light beam has a measurement light beam intensity and impinges on the surface of the liquid specimen. It reflects back as a reflected light beam with a reflected light beam intensity which is related to the reflectivity R of the liquid surface and to the measurement light beam intensity. The detector receives the reflected light beam and determines the reflected light beam intensity. Either the temperature or concentration of the liquid specimen can then be determined based on the reflected light beam intensity. The light source can be a coherent light source, such as a laser. A beam splitter can be provided to split the light beam from the light source into a reference light beam and the measurement light beam. The reference light beam is used to compensate for fluctuations in the light source. Temperature measurements can be conducted on a pure liquid or a multi-component liquid with a substantially constant concentration. Concentration measurements can be conducted on a multi-component liquid which is maintained in a substantially isothermal condition. The method of the invention includes causing a measurement light beam with a measurement light beam intensity to impinge on the surface of the liquid specimen; detecting a reflected light beam; and determining either the temperature or the concentration of the liquid specimen. The measurement light beam can be caused to impinge on the surface of the liquid at an angle which enhances the change of reflectivity with respect to temperature or concentration. Detection of the intensity of the light beams can be carried out using photodiodes, amplifier circuitry, and relatively low-cost digital voltmeters."
The question this beings up for me is What relationship is there between concentration and density? It may be a snap to measure the concentration of a mixture of water and ethanol, but it in a real-world situation, the fermentation mixture would include many things. So while we might be getting measured differences in concentration, we miay not necessarily be measuring the concentration of ethanol.
It has been too long since I tok chemistry. Is there a well-defined or reliable relationship between the concentration of a multi-component liquid and its density?
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