In this article, we first examine the performance and safety of three common alcohols as stove fuels, then we look at the effect of blending them together to see if any benefit can be obtained that way. In Part Two of this series, we will look at the effect of adding water to a single alcohol as far as efficiency and fuel consumption is concerned.
The three common alcohols that can be used as fuel in our backpacking stoves are methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol. 'Denatured alcohol' can be a mixture of some or all of these alcohols, plus other strange additives, while 'methylated spirits' has a known composition of 95% ethanol.
We will show that the performance of a particular alcohol stove fuel is generally related to the amount of heating energy in that fuel. We will also show that there are other very significant factors to be consider beyond the theoretical energy content, like health and safety. After that, we will show what happens when you blend different alcohols together. Finally, we make some recommendations.
Tony Beasley is responsible for the experimental work in this series. Roger Caffin is responsible for the writing.
ARTICLE OUTLINE
- Introduction
- Test Conditions
- Temperature Measurement
- Stoves Used in Testing
- Pots Used in Testing
- Water Volumes
- Fuel Measurements
- Alcohols Tested
- Ethanol, 'Methylated Spirits'
- Methanol
- Isopropanol
- A Comparison of Properties
- Fuel Efficiency: Single Alcohols
- Experimental Procedure
- Results
- Analysis of Results
- Fuel Power - Single Alcohols
- Experimental Procedure
- Results
- Analysis of Results
- Comparisons of Straight Alcohols
- Blended Alcohols
- Analysis of Results
- Conclusions
# WORDS: 5340
# PHOTOS: 8
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Discussion
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The reason why dangerous and other additives are added to pure ethanol is so that people cannot easily produce alcoholic drinks by watering it down to a reasonably safe level. Ethanol is dangerous initself but the human body can tolerate and metabolise it to a very much greater degree than the other additives. Thus "metho" can be sold cheaply without any government alcohol tax.
Gordon
Australia
I'm just researching alcohol stoves and I'm a bit confused. There seems to be 3 commonly used alcohols, all of which have problems.
Pure ethanol works good but 95% Everclear is expensive and everything else seems to contain dangerous additives.
Methanol seems easier to get a yellow HEET, but it is considerably less efficient than Ethanol and IPA and there are health concerns.
IPA seems to be too dangerous to ones health to use?
So what do I use? Based on fuel efficiency I'd like to use ethanol but I'm in Canada and don't know where to get it. Can you get pure denatured ethanol at the local hardware store?
Hi, Dan-
Bottom line, there's no such thing as "pure" denatured alcohol. The "denatured" part of the phrase is specifically to make the alcohol un-pure, if you will. That said, you can pick up regular ol' denatured alcohol at the local hardware. If you like, check the MSDS for the denatured alkys you have available to find out how much of what "methyl ethyl bad stuff" it has. IPA is just a pain to burn, mega sooty.
Hi Dan,
I stand to be corrected but I have read on other forums that denatured is not available in Canada and you can only get Methanol.
Tony
Thanks guys…..I guess I'll pick up a bottle of Methanol (Heet) and see how that goes. I'm just considering switching to an alcohol stove (from canister) at this point. I'm a little dismayed at how much less efficient methanol (ie. grams per litre boiled) vs. ethanol. I'm going to visit a few stores in the next 2 days and see what I can find.
Hi Mates, you guys sure did a fantastic job on these articles. Really indepth information. Thank You so much!!!
Another Denaturant that was found in Denatured Alcohol was camel urine. Roger sited minibulldesign as a source of information that indicated that bleach was also used.
(quote):However, lest you are wondering whether this is all made up, a quote from the noted alcohol stove enthusiast Tinny of MiniBullDesigns in America is worth reading. You should note that he is only talking about those versions of denatured alcohol which he has been able to buy in America. We are sure other versions exist.(end quote)
I found this info from the same source and I quote:
(Quote)(from minibulldesign site)
If you want to do this to your white box stove you can either buy some wick from my site or you can send the little girl to tinny and he will do the dirty work for you for $5.00 plus shipping—congratulations Bill you have a very nice design —-Tinny—got ideas?
OH– I DO NOT recommend DENATURED ALCOHOL. I can't speak for every area but in my area they keep using different stuff to denature it, like camel urine and the results can be dramatic. I use HEET in the yellow bottle.(end quote)
I don't think I'll be using Denatured again. How do they get away with using such additives.
Hi Dan
> I don't think I'll be using Denatured again. How do they get away with using such additives.
I have no idea! But it's your government, not mine. If you don't like what your government permits, get it changed.
Here in Australia the contents of 'denatured alcohol' or 'methylated spirits' seem to be rather more tightly regulated – the issue of public health is taken seriously.
OK, OK, I am stirring – but only slightly.
Cheers
Would that it were so easy. Big business here tends to like a free hand, and pays well (oops, I meant "makes campaign contributions," silly me) for the priviledge
I for one would love it if we adopted British ("meths") and Australian ("metho") style standards. Lovely to know that the alcohol you're buying actually is ethyl alcohol (with a nip of "denaturing" agent). Here, you're buying denaturing agent with a nip of alcohol.
Hi Roger,
You weren't suppose to take me seriously. =)
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