Gubement does not want us drinking un (Highly) taxed liquor. So, even though I don't drink alcohol, I cannot buy pure alcohol for stove use without undue cost. Even the homedistillers.org site references some members, that purchased a still online, getting a scary letter in the mail from the TBB (https://www.ttb.gov/) As I understand the issue of taxes and liquor go back to George Washington times. "The Whiskey Rebellion"
The whole point of denaturing ethanol in the first place was to remove it from the tax rolls by eliminating it as beverage alcohol.
I guess the ATF changed their initials to TTB. Never noticed. Last night I was in the Home Despot, and priced Klean Strip Green. It was $7.95 a quart. No gallons in KSG, but a gallon can of Klean Strip [with a red label] was $15.95. Wonder how well it burns? I settled for a bottle of yellow Heet for only $1.77.
As I understand it, the cleaner 'green' alcohol is more available in the UK, and I think that was what Ross and some others mentioned. It has less additives, but is still not a beverage. I can understand some do not care, but I do. Just a preference. Home Distiller • Index page
I just put the KS Green in my Optimus 100 spiritbranner. I confess the stove has been on a sunporch and neglected for years. It needs seals bad. But I got it tightened up. I was frustrated with it several years ago because it would burn ok, then blow the flame off the burner, over and over again. But now it burns steady. I think this fuel works.....
https://stillspirits.com/pages/about-us https://stillspirits.com/pages/get-started note the red tape at the bottom of the second link "A little bit of red tape … It isn't hard to make great spirits at home, but you do have to play by the rules. In New Zealand, Austria, Italy, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Ukraine it is perfectly legal to home distil for personal use, but elsewhere it is not. In most countries it is illegal for an individual to use a still for the purpose of making your own pure alcohol to drink. Yet it’s not against the law to own a water distillation unit or a simple ‘plug in and press start’ air-still, (under 5 L in Australia) and many people already use these devices to distil water or to make essential oils. If you are in a country where amateur distillation is not permitted, you will need to purchase the base alcohol from a store in order to create your own liqueur, spirit or schnapps. Low priced vodka or everclear (grain alcohol) is ideal for this purpose. Still Spirits strongly recommends that you check the legal status of amateur distillation in your country beforehand. Please note that using Still Spirits flavourings and most other distilling products is LEGAL in every country. "
The Kleenstrip regular is about 50% methanol and 50% ethanol. It burns just fine in many stoves, but as mentioned, likely not as hot due to the methanol. It burns very clean and will not soot your pans or stove as ethanol is prone to do. The Kleenstrip Green is now bragging it is 95% ethanol. I used this in my brother's Optimus 5 regulated 209 burner and it burned better than the 50-50. I also use the 50-50 in my Trangias and for priming my kerosene and Coleman gas burners. It burns very clean as a pre-heat. I can buy the 50-50 for $10 a gallon at a hardware store. I still haven't tried the KSG in my Punker to see if it burns better than 50-50.
Here's a YouTube video showing how to make pure ethanol. You can purchase the molecular sieve material here. The hydrometer here. Ben
Here in Australia we have +95% ethanol easily available as "methylated spirits". Tainted to make it difficult to drink, it is greater than 95% ethanol and the rest water. I just bought 20 litres for AUD$65. http://sealanes.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Methylated-Spirits-Diggers-issued-100423.pdf Cheers Tony
@snwcmpr That's curious. Modaflame ethanol is still readily available from Amazon. Better stock up. I'm going to try making my own pure 200 proof ethanol. I'll start with 150 proof Everclear which is 75% ethanol and available at my local BevMo. I bought a one gallon electric still on eBay which should get me to 95% ethanol. Then I'm going to dry it using micro sieve beads which soak up smaller water molecules but not the larger ethanol molecules. That should get me close to 100% ethanol. It will have to be stored in an air tight container so it doesn't soak up moisture from the air and dilute back to 95% and it won't be cheap but should be fun! Ben
Maybe. Everclear 151 is $18.99 for 750 ml and Kavlana Vodka is $6.99 for 750 ml. The Vodka is 80 proof so it would take twice as much and probably a couple of distillations to get 151 proof. So I might save $5 bucks for a lot more hassle. I just use ethanol to prime my stoves and a quart lasts me quite awhile so cost isn't really a factor. At $33.33 per gallon my annual cost for priming stoves is about $7.50. I pinch pennies but that I can afford. Ben
@z1ulike , Ben, a easy way is to use either plaster of Paris or dessicated Epson salts as a drying agent Either one works well for drying solvents, you have to prepare your Epson salts by driving out the water before using, but they agree with almost all organic solvents, non reactive and can be reactivated in oven or frying pan with no problems. DO NOT USE calcium chloride, it dissolves in alcohol, defeats the purpose. A coffee filter works well for filtering out the drying agent, and look up drying agents and "snow globing" for a good explaination of water removal and solvents (NPS and others). http://natsci.parkland.edu/che/204/Labs/caffeine.pdf Top of page 4 Murph
