Denatured Alcohol from Lowes

[tropane]

Does anyone know if this stuff is pure enough to use for extractions?
SWIM hates to waste money on something he's never bought before not knowing if it's pure or not.
He's hoping maybe one of you have tried it.

 

[burnt]

The reason denatured alcohol is called denatured alcohol is because they add a substances to it to make it toxic and undrinkable so it can only be used for cleaning or other industrial purposes without having to worry about kiddies getting a hold of it.

So no its not even close to pure. You'd be better off with 95% ethanol for drinking.

 

[benzyme]

if he's really considering using it for extractions, then yeah...it's definitely suitable for extractions.

thoroughly evaporate it, some formulations have small amounts of pyridine added to it

 

[Noman]

Sometimes the only addition is methanol, which would be fine.
I love how the gubbinint would rather I go blind or die than catch a buzz without them getting their cut.

 

[benzyme]

usually the additive is methanol, especially in ACS-grade (aka lab-grade .. 85%:15% EtOH:MeOH)
though some industrial formulations may add other things like ethylene glycol, and/or pyridine, which is the most hazardous.

 

[burnt]

dont they add bitter non volatile substances as well? to make the taste revolting. thats more what i was concerned of rather then volatile solvent additives.

 

[The Traveler]

Just lookup denatured alcohol at Wikipedia:

Denatured alcohol - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Denatured alcohol is ethanol that has additives to make it toxic, unpalatable, or otherwise undrinkable. In some cases it is also dyed. Denatured alcohol is used as a solvent and as fuel for spirit burners and camping stoves. Because of the diversity of industrial uses for denatured alcohol, hundreds of additives and denaturing methods have been used. Traditionally, the main additive is 10% methanol, giving rise to the term methylated spirit. Typical additives are methanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, denatonium,[1] and even (uncommonly) aviation gasoline.

Different additives are used to make it both unpalatable and poisonous in such a way that it is difficult to use distillation or other simple processes to rectify the denaturation. Methanol is commonly used because its boiling point is close to that of ethanol, thus separating the two ingredients by distillation is difficult (although not impossible). In many countries, it is also required that denatured alcohol be dyed blue or purple with an aniline dye.

I would stay away from denatured alcohol as an extraction solvent.

 

[Infundibulum]

It should be OK to use denatured alcohol if every additive is volatile. Things like ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone and methyl isobutyl ketone sound fine and they may even make an extraction better.

The non-volatiles like deunatorium and colourings are a pain and should be avoided. Now, there should be some way, i.e. if one looks on the MSDS sheets or phones the company that supplies the denatured alcohol and find out what exactly they contain. Companies are required to tell you, besides some people may be allergic to some of the additives or react badly (skin rashes etc).

This is to the benefit of the end-user, so if anyone's planning on using denatured alcohol, it is highly recommended to make some extra search and find exactly what the additives are.

 

[burnt]

Yea denatonium was the bitter substance i was talking about. its the most bitter substance known. SWIM wouldn't like to take a hit of that. I am pretty sure most denatured alcohol contains it to revolt people. If it was just ethanol with some methanol people might still drink it then you'd have people going blind etc.