Why denature alcohol?
Denatured ethanol is basically a political and business contrivance. Ethanol could theoretically be used for most jobs that call for denatured ethanol, but ethanol is also consumable. The government strongly regulates and taxes consumable alcohols, so ethanol as a consumable is quite a bit more expensive than denatured ethanol. Denatured ethanol is a compromise with regulators that basically states the alcohol is designated for a specific purpose, and cannot be consumed by humans as an alcoholic beverage. Therefore, regulators don’t tax denatured ethanol in the same manner as ethanol, the manufacturers save money and the denatured product can be used in diverse applications. Methanol in denatured ethanol is highly toxic. While most of the methods for creating denatured ethanol make the alcohol un-consumable and even toxic, adding methanol to ethanol creates a highly toxic compound. If people ingest methanol, it can cause blindness and even death. Therefore, denatured ethanol that has b
