Bioethanol Burners

arrows123

Have amended my original comment. 

RobM99

QrizB said:

Is bioethanol a fancy sort of meths?

(A serious question, sorry if it sounds flippant.)

Bio-ethanol is ethanol that is produced by fermentation rather that chemical process (e.g. in a reactor).

Meths is ethanol (C2H5OH) with added Methanol (CH3OH), pyridine and a colourant.

Pyridine to make it taste bitter to stop people drinking it,  methanol to "denature" it (drinking methanol can lead to blindness) and colourant to show there's been no duty paid, like "red" Diesel (which isn't Diesel at all).

As an aside - ethanol is the alcohol we all know (old name was "drinking alcohol") but there are many, many alcohols.

QrizB

RobM99 said:

QrizB said:

Is bioethanol a fancy sort of meths?

(A serious question, sorry if it sounds flippant.)

Bio-ethanol is ethanol that is produced by fermentation rather that chemical process (e.g. in a reactor).
Meths is ethanol (C2H5OH) with added Methanol (CH3OH), quinine and a colourant.
Quinine to make it taste bitter to stop people drinking it,  methanol to "denature" it (drinking methanol can lead to blindness) and colourant to show there's been no duty paid, like "red" Diesel (which isn't Diesel at all).

Presumably bioethanol has also been denatured? Otherwise we'd all be drinking that with our cola at £3 a litre rather than rum?

RobM99

Yes, same as per "meths" I'd guess.  The "bio" part only refers to the method of production. It's the same stuff, bio- or not.

RobM99

There you go! Ethanol ("drinking alcohol" - which I don't!)