A while back I did a group buy so I could check out e-nrg 'bio ethanol' fuel, it sounded quite promising, and the website description of the product made it sound like it would be a very good alternative to things like Kleanstrip green or other primarily ethanol based denatured alcohols, virtually all of which are denatured with methanol.
http://www.e-nrg.com/about-us/
One thing leading to another, I didn't actually get around to testing the stuff I got until this week, and, after noting my hands and face were getting covered with thick oily soot after running some stove tests, finally I realized that the fuel simply does not work as an alcohol stove fuel.
I emailed their customer support, and he noted that it sounded like there's an incomplete combustion going on, and also sent me me the MSDS for the fuel, where I saw that it contains up to 10% isopropyl alcohol. I'm not a chemist, but I'm assuming that that alcohol fails to combust until it gets further up the flame, thus creating the pretty yellow colors the company's website shows on their fireplaces that burn this stuff.
I did a quick test to verify this and found that there was little soot if you held some foil above the end of the yellow flame, so this stuff should be crossed off your list of possible stove fuels, e-nrg does not suggest it's good for stove fuel, and I can confirm it's by far the worst I've ever tried. The sooting is easily an order of magnitude more than Kleanstrip green, which many here have correctly noted leaves a light soot residue (but believed me, if you saw the heavy soot left by e-nrg fuel, you'd never consider klean strip green dirty again, lol).
The customer service guy was reasonable, and pointed out that nowhere do they suggest that this is a good stove fuel, it's only for their fireplaces, and the stuff that makes the tops of the flames yellow is exactly what will blacken your pots horribly if you use it to try to cook with, so the only fault I'd note re e-nrg is that they don't clearly say that their fuel is denatured with isopropyl alcohol, but then again, they aren't selling it as a denatured alcohol in the first place.
So this is a live and learn thing, I'm sure the other people who went in on the buy have noticed this by now, but I'm just posting this so that a google search or a site search will show this thread.
For those who must know, here's the MSDS data:
Ethyl Alcohol: 90-100% (umm, why do they say 100%? it can't be 100% if it has 2 other ingredients)
Isopropyl alcohol: 5-10%
Methyl Ethyl Ketone: 1.0-5.0%
So the very most ethyl it can have would be 94% And my guess is, given the requirement for max yellowing, it's probably 85%, it certainly burned with noticeably less energy than kleanstrip green in my tests.
One has to scratch one's head when one sees such bad data, and it makes one wonder if any of the data is actually true, since simple math shows that their numbers are wrong and impossible.
One could comment on the 'green' part of their claims for their fuel if one wanted, this ethyl stuff is all made from industrial agribusiness corn feed stock, which uses a lot of industrial fertilizers, diesel, and natural gas to process the alcohol, creating what most informed commentators note is little better than a straight conversion from carbon based fuels to alcohol in terms of energy in to energy out, but that's going a bit off topic, but it is worth keeping in mind when one considers what is actually green.
Now to find a way to get that black soot off all my pots, heh. I'm also finding a new fondness for kleanstrip green, while it leaves a very light residue, it by no means leaves heavy soot that wipes off on your fingers at a touch. So a bit of perspective is helpful in such comparisons.
Happy hiking, wanted to get this information out there just on the off chance someone else might be tempted to try this stuff, don't do it, you'll have a heck of a time figuring out what to do with it, I guess you can put it on outdoor fireplaces, that's it!! I'll give the bottles to some friends who have outdoor fireplaces, it actually does burn pretty clean if you let the flames rise high without interrupting them with a pot bottom. And to the others who discovered this sad fact, no, it wasn't only you or your stove, I tested this on 3 distinct types of stoves, a cat can, basic design, several penny type stoves, and a basic flat cat stove. All sooted very heavily.
