What is “Denatured Alcohol” that you see on ingredients, e.g. of after-shaves?
Denatured alcohol is not, in itself, a preferred product — that is, it is not something which 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 (specifically ethanol, suitable for human consumption as a drink) is usually very expensive compared to similar chemicals, being highly taxed for revenue and public health policy purposes (see sin tax). As a result, if pure ethanol were made cheaply available for other useful industrial and commercial purposes (such as fuel or solvents) this would create a temptation or incentive to convert relatively cheap industrial ethanol for human consumption. 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 it being converted for consumption. The process
