> I have been running searches on distillation. I can't find any common
> single letters but am a lot more knowledgable about home-made still
> operations. Perhaps therein lies the answer does anyone associate a single
> letter with ethanol?

Ethanol is frequently abbreviated EtOH... but that's not one letter :) Distillation isn't specific to alcohol... If I'm not mistaken it is the process in which you separate out two miscible liquids based on their boiling points... the liquid with the lower boiling point will boil away first before the mixture can be heated to the higher boiling point. By collecting the evaporated first liquid before any vapor from the second liquid is given off you can quite effectively separate the two liquids.

As I write this out I'm beginning to think distillation isn't part of the solution... the symbol is close, but not entirely accurate (so far chelsea has paid a lot of attention to detail... its not like her to be so sloppy) AND we've already found a solution using chemistry... likely that no two solutions share the same derivation.