Denatured alcohol is a combination of harmful or nauseating substances added to ethanol, making it unfit for consumption without chemical alteration.
Alcohol is a versatile substance that can be used in various concentrations and quantities, from drinking to cleaning. However, when misused, it can lead to disastrous consequences.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), alcohol is directly or indirectly linked to nearly 200 diseases!
How Is Denatured Alcohol Different From Normal Alcohol?
In chemistry, alcohols are organic compounds that have an –OH functional group attached to the carbon chain. The most commonly consumed form of alcohol is “ethanol”.
On the other hand, denatured alcohol is ethanol that has been rendered unsuitable for human consumption but can still be used domestically and industrially. Denaturing involves removing a specific property of a substance; in this case, denaturing alcohol eliminates its drinkable nature.
Ethanol is often mixed with dyes, bitterants, or other poisonous substances to create denatured alcohol. Since alcohol is used in various industries, such as medicine, cleaning, perfumery, and event planning, it is crucial that the chemical composition remains unchanged despite the addition of different substances. Therefore, additives are carefully chosen to maintain the original composition.
What Is Denatured Alcohol Used For?
Alcoholism has been a significant issue since the unrestricted availability of alcohol. Due to its numerous applications across industries, it was practically impossible to ban its use. Hence, denatured alcohol was introduced as a solution.
The production of denatured alcohol aimed to address two problems:
- To control alcohol consumption, the government imposed heavy taxes on alcohol. To evade these taxes, industries began denaturing alcohol, rendering it non-consumable.
- The government aimed to reduce alcoholism and related problems. Although alcohol remained available, it could no longer be consumed.
Can You Process Denatured Alcohol To Make It Consumable?
Well… it depends.
If denatured alcohol is treated with substances like a bitterant or foul-smelling additive, it can be distilled to obtain pure ethanol once again. If the distilled ethanol is intended for consumption, it should be passed through activated charcoal to enhance its purity. The more the ethanol is distilled, the purer and more concentrated it becomes. Industries employ a more sophisticated process called fractional distillation to purify and increase the alcohol concentration.
Distillation (Photo Credit : udaix/Shutterstock)
However, if the denatured alcohol contains toxic additives like methanol, the distillation process becomes laborious and time-consuming. Additionally, the necessary equipment for this elaborate process may not be readily available. Furthermore, there is no way to ensure that the distilled product is pure ethanol.
Methanol has a boiling point of 64.7°C, while ethanol boils at 78.37°C, which are relatively close to each other. The mixture must be maintained at 64.7°C until all the methanol has evaporated, a challenging task.
Distilling these two substances is very dangerous because it is impossible to ensure that all the methanol is completely vaporized. If even a small amount of methanol remains, it can lead to blindness or even death. Distilling alcohol can make it suitable for laboratory purposes, but it cannot make it safe for consumption.
Furthermore, in most English-speaking countries, it is legal and allowed to make alcohol at home, so people generally do not resort to such extreme measures of distilling industrial alcohol to make it drinkable.
Alcoholism is a disease caused by human behavior, and unless we, as a global community, address it as a serious problem, it cannot be cured.
There have been numerous cases where people consumed denatured alcohol out of desperation and died. Governments worldwide can only attempt to limit access to alcohol through taxation or denaturing, but the ultimate power lies with the people.
Alcohol itself is not inherently bad; it is all about how we choose to use it!