Denatured alcohol

Denatured alcohol or methylated spirits is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, extremely bad tasting, foul smelling or nauseating, to discourage recreational consumption. In some cases it is also dyed.

Denatured alcohol is used as a solvent and as fuel for spirit burners and camping stoves. Because of the diversity of industrial uses for denatured alcohol, hundreds of additives and denaturing methods have been used. The main additive has traditionally been 10% methanol, giving rise to the term "methylated spirits". Other typical additives include isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, and denatonium.^[1]

Denaturing alcohol does not chemically alter the ethanol molecule. Rather, the ethanol is mixed with other chemicals to form an undrinkable solution.

Different additives are used to make it difficult to use distillation or other simple processes to reverse the denaturation. Methanol is commonly used both because its boiling point is close to that of ethanol and because it is toxic. In many countries, it is also required that denatured alcohol be dyed blue or purple with an aniline dye.

Purpose

Denatured alcohol

Denatured alcohol is not, in itself, a preferred product — that is, it is not something that would be normally demanded if given the alternative of normal ethanol. Denatured alcohol and its manufacture are a public policy compromise. The supply and demand for denatured alcohol arises from the fact that normal alcohol (which in everyday language refers specifically to ethanol, suitable for human consumption as a drink) is usually very expensive in comparison with similar chemicals, being highly taxed for revenue and public health policy purposes (see sin tax). If pure ethanol were made cheaply available as a fuel or solvent, people would drink it.^[2]

Denatured alcohol provides a solution to permit legitimate use and manufacture of ethanol, whereby cheap ethanol can be made available for non-consumption use without the risk of its being converted for consumption. The process creates an ethanol-containing solution that is not suitable for drinking, but is otherwise similar to ethanol for most purposes. As a result, there is no duty on denatured alcohol in most countries, making it considerably cheaper than pure ethanol. As a consequence, its composition is tightly defined by government regulations that vary between countries.

Formulations

There are several grades of denatured alcohol, but in general the denaturants used are similar. As an example, the formulation for completely denatured alcohol, according to British regulations is as follows: ^[3]

Completely denatured alcohol must be made in accordance with the following formulation: with every 90 parts by volume of alcohol mix 9.5 parts by volume of wood naphtha or a substitute and 0.5 parts by volume of crude pyridine, and to the resulting mixture add mineral naphtha (petroleum oil) in the proportion of 3.75 litres to every 1000 litres of the mixture and synthetic organic dyestuff (methyl violet) in the proportion of 1.5 grams to every 1000 litres of the mixture.

The European Union agreed in February 2013 to the mutual procedures for the complete denaturing of alcohol:^[4]

Per hectolitre (100 L) of absolute ethanol: 3 litres of isopropyl alcohol (IPA), 3 litres of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and 1 gram denatonium benzoate.

Uses

Denatured alcohol has a variety of common uses:

• As a fuel for marine and ultra-light camping (backpacking) stoves. It is inexpensive, may be extinguished with water, and can be transported without special containers. However, safety concerns do arise from the near-colourless flame with which alcohol burns. A jellied and dyed form is used in the Sterno brand fuel "Canned Heat", which is meant to be ignited and used in its container.
• To pre-heat the vaporizing tubes on a wickless kerosene stove such as a Primus stove
• As a sanding aid, as the alcohol helps to more easily remove excess dust because it does not open the wood grain the way that water does.^[5]
• As a mealybug exterminator.^[6]
• As a cleaning aid in removing ink stains from upholstery or clothes.
• As a cleaner in daily housekeeping
• As a solvent in shellac and shellac-based products.
• As an excipient in a number of pharmaceutical products for topical use.^[7]
• As a less expensive alternative to pure ethanol in preserving biological specimens.
• As a less toxic alternative to methanol in the production of biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel produced using ethanol is properly called fatty acid ethyl ester, whereas biodiesel from methanol is properly referred to as fatty acid methyl ester.^[8]
• For maintenance of wicks in kerosene heaters and lamps to remove water contaminants and restore the capillary action of the wick, as a wick cleaner and a kerosene additive, by adding approx. 1 teaspoon denatured alcohol per gallon of kerosene.
• As a fuel for older toy steam engines which used a wick-type or vaporizing burner.^[9]
• For window washing
• As a fuel for fire jugglers and fire spinners. This can be used in conjunction with boric acid to create a greenish fire effect.
• It can be used in cooking to test pectin levels when making jam, jelly and marmalade.^[10]

In the United States, small amounts of denatured alcohol are used in many consumer products such as toothpaste, where they are labeled as "SD alcohol XX", where SD stands for "specially denatured" and XX is the formula used in the denaturing process that specifies the denaturants. These formulas for denatured alcohol are found in 27 CFR part 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.^[11] Some of these formulas, such as SD alcohol 38-B,^[12] are designed to be unpalatable but otherwise non-poisonous; they are used in applications like mouthwashes where some amount of incidental ingestion is expected. (The specific denaturants in formulas 37 and 38-B closely resemble the active ingredients in alcohol-based mouthwashes like Listerine.^[13])

Consumption and toxicity

Despite its poisonous nature, denatured alcohol is sometimes consumed as a surrogate alcohol, which can result in blindness or death if the denatured alcohol contains methanol. This happened during Prohibition, when the U.S. government used methanol in industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States.^[14] To help prevent this, denatonium is often added to give the substance an extremely bitter flavor. Substances such as pyridine help to give the mixture an unpleasant odor, and emetic (vomiting) agents such as syrup of ipecac may also be included.

Some countries, such as New Zealand, have removed methanol from their government approved 'methylated sprits' formulation.^[15]

See also

• Isopropyl alcohol
• Rubbing alcohol
• E85

References

External links

• 27 CFR 20, regulations relating to denatured alcohol in the United States
• Specifications and licensing of methylated spirits in the United Kingdom
• European Community COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 162/2013 on the mutual recognition of procedures for the complete denaturing of alcohol for the purposes of exemption from excise duty
• HM Revenue and Customs: Production, distribution and use of denatured alcohol