denatured alcohol
Fiberman
-fm
David Toland
> What is meant by "denatured" ethyl alcohol? It smells terrible.
Denatured ethanol is ethanol treated with a difficult to remove additive
that makes it undrinkable.
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William Hodgeman Jr
> What is meant by "denatured" ethyl alcohol? It smells terrible.
>
> -fm
>
>
poisonous. If it smells bad, it must be methanol. Ethyl alcohol with
hard-to-remove additives is labelled punctilious.
Bill
Kenneth Paul Murphy
>
>Denatured ethanol is ethanol treated with a difficult to remove additive
>that makes it undrinkable.
Usually methanol, I believe.
-Kip
Fiberman
>>
>In general, denatured alcohol is methanol, which just happens to be
>poisonous. If it smells bad, it must be methanol. Ethyl alcohol with
>hard-to-remove additives is labelled punctilious.
>
>Bill
I thought "punctilious" ethanol is just 100% ethanol without any
additives, so it is drinkable (diluted, of course).
Carolyn Giberson
Ethanol can be denatured with many different compounds, depending
on the eventual use for the alcohol. Some denatured alcohol I
buy as a solvent for organic labs is denatured with ketones (methyl
ethyl ketone, I believe), which makes it unsuitable for drinking.
It also, unfortunately, makes it unsuitable for preparing some
test reagents (like DNPH reagent).
Carolyn Giberson
gi...@pollux.cs.uga.edu
Barry x24904/ER/167B-TED
>What is meant by "denatured" ethyl alcohol? It smells terrible.
Denatured ethanol is ethanol that has been deliberately contaminated with
another substance to make it unfit for human consumption. There are over
500 accepted substances approved as denaturants and others may be approved
for special applications. For example, surfuric acid may be used as a
denaturant for ethanol where the ethanol may later be esterified and the
surfuric acid used as a dessicant. Common denaturants are methanol,
phenolphthalein (the indicator and the active ingredient in Ex-Lax), and
methyl ethyl ketone. Denaturants are often chosen for vile smell and bad
taste. Absolute ethanol (wwithout denaturant) may be used industrially
without paying liquor taxes only if massive quantities of records are kept
and adequate safeguards exist to protect from theft. Also expect frequent
visits from the BATF.
Barry
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Tony Kidson
>What is meant by "denatured" ethyl alcohol? It smells terrible.
/CH-CH\
It usually has CH N in it. (I've currently forgotten its name.)
\CH-CH/
Tastes foul and is fairly poisonous too. Also often contains methyl alcohol.
Tony
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Greg Cook
> In article <47...@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> ws...@jeeves.ucsd.edu writes:
>
>>What is meant by "denatured" ethyl alcohol? It smells terrible.
>
> /CH-CH\
> It usually has CH N in it. (I've currently forgotten its name.)
> \CH-CH/
Hmm . . What you have drawn here is pyridine!
Gregory R. Cook | INTERNET: gc...@horus.cem.msu.edu
Department of Chemistry | cook...@student.msu.edu
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stephen j uurtamo
Excuse the pinhead question, but why is methanol difficult to remove from
ethanol? Aren't the heats of vaporization reasonably far apart?
steve
Tony Kidson
>> /CH-CH\
>> It usually has CH N in it. (I've currently forgotten its name.)
>> \CH-CH/
>
>Hmm . . What you have drawn here is pyridine!
Yup! That's the name I was looking for.
Philip L. Gravel
> Excuse the pinhead question, but why is methanol difficult to remove from
> ethanol? Aren't the heats of vaporization reasonably far apart?
It's not a pinhead question. I think the question you're actually asking is:
Can't ethanol and methanol be separated by distillation? Yes, their boiling
points are sufficiently different that they can be separated in this manner --
I don't recall that they form an azeotrope.
However, the purpose of denaturing is make ethyl alcohol (as obtained)
unsuitable drinking. I doubt that most people have access to distillation
equipment that is efficient enough to render methanol denatured alcohol fit
for drinking.
Phil
-----
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Amoco Chemical Company, Chicago, IL Phone: (312)856-3553
----------
These opinions aren't worth the paper they're written on and
certainly don't reflect those of my employer.
Jimmy Tung
> I thought "punctilious" ethanol is just 100% ethanol without any
> additives, so it is drinkable (diluted, of course).
Any 100% ethanol probably is 99.99% ethanol with trace amounts of
benzene or any of the other 500 chemicals mentioned elsewhere. The
purest drinkable stuff is 95% (due to the water-ethanol azeotrope). Of
course, I suppose some may not consider water to be a contaminant ...
;-)
Christo Houbaviy
>> What is meant by "denatured" ethyl alcohol? It smells terrible.
>>
>> -fm
>>
>>
>In general, denatured alcohol is methanol, which just happens to be
>poisonous. If it smells bad, it must be methanol.
A minor correction - pure methanol smells very much like ethanol. I
have heard of a few cases when people stole methanol from the lab,
mistaking it for ethanol (needed a drink, you see) and then dying or
loosing their sight.
Christo
--
Christo Houbaviy [lih...@dapsas.weizmann.ac.il]
Department of Molecular Genetics and Virology
The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Ken Hartman
Denatured alcohol is really Ethanol that has been adulterated with
another chemical. Several chemicals are used to denature alcohol (Methanol
and aviation gasoline are a couple that I remember). There are many different
blends available. I assume that is so you can choose another blend if
the denaturant is interfering with your analysis.
Pure Methanol does not smell very bad. I think it smells "sweet"
myself. I believe that "Punctilious" is a trade name for one formulation
of denatured Ethanol.
> Bill
Ken
>
drinkable. It may be made from 95% by means other than distillation.
(I believe distillation from benzene gives "nearly" pure, yet toxic
ethanol.) For example, drying over molecular sieves (zeolites) would
not adulterate the product.
-jg
PHA...@ukcc.uky.edu
khar...@fnalo.fnal.gov (Ken Hartman) writes:
>
> Denatured alcohol is really Ethanol that has been adulterated with
>another chemical. Several chemicals are used to denature alcohol (Methanol
>and aviation gasoline are a couple that I remember). There are many different
>blends available. I assume that is so you can choose another blend if
>the denaturant is interfering with your analysis.
lists quite a few of the formulas.
>....... I believe that "Punctilious" is a trade name for one formulation
>of denatured Ethanol.
"punctilious" means pure, absolute, unadulterated, 200 proof alcohol,
NOT poisonous, denatured alcohol.
-jg
Philip L. Gravel
To pick a nit, *nothing* is ever 100%. However, absolute ethanol is 99+%
ethyl alcohol and does not contain any denaturing agents or anything else
that would render it unfit for human consumption. There are ways to remove
water without resorting to azeotropic distillation -- 2A molecular sieves
come to mind. If absolute ethanol weren't fit to drink, it wouldn't have a
tax seal on the bottle.