[Cdt-l] Alcohol Stove Fuel

[Dan Bedore]

Alcohol stoves burn with a hot, blue, sootless flame with nearly pure ethanol (the stuff you drink) or methanol (poisonous wood alcohol), or with a mixture of the two. 

Isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) and petroleum distillates burn with a relatively cool, yellow, very sooty flame in typical alcohol stoves. 

So if the can lists the contents, you can see whether it will be satisfactory fuel. If not, every Chemical sold in the US must have a material safety data sheet, which lists the ingredients. You can usually find the MSDS on the Internet. 

In auto parts stores, you can usually buy isopropanol or methanol as fuel deicer. Make sure you get the methanol. 

In hardware stores, one can buy denatured alcohol. This is usually mostly ethanol with enough methanol and petroleum distillates to make it too poisonous to drink, thus avoiding liquor taxes. So long as it's mostly methanol and ethanol it will burn nicely. 

It concerns me that some are discussing paint thinner. This is a petroleum distillate and a poor fuel choice for alcohol stoves. 

Dan Bedore
www.bedore.org