[pct-l] isopropyl alcohol as stove fuel???

[Brett]

Interesting data. Obviously I'm a distracted tinkerer, missing out on 
all sorts of relevant subject matter!

I guess it's two-stop-shopping for trail-town-bound thru-hikers these 
days. Or three stop, including the post office's ounce-measuring scale.

- blisterfree

Greg Kesselring wrote:
> Tinny at Minibull Designs has done some experimenting with a mixture 
> of Isopropyl alcohol with either methanol (Heet in the yellow bottle) 
> or ethanol (denatured alcohol).  If you're a tinkerer, you could do 
> the same with your stove at home and see if there is some blend that 
> will burn soot free.  Isopropyl alcohol has slightly more btu's by 
> weight than either methanol or ethanol, so if you come up with a blend 
> that works, you'll get slightly more heat output per ounce of weight 
> than either of those fuels by themselves.
>
> IsopropylAlcohol 12,960 btu/lb
> Ethyl Alcohol 11,570 btu/lb
> Methyl Alcohol 8,419 btu/lb
>
> Greg
>
> Brett wrote:
>> Forget about volatility, which is a non-issue. Avoid isopropyl alcohol, 
>> rather, because of its inefficient, sooty burn. Same thing, to a lesser 
>> extent soot-wise, with ethyl rubbing alcohol. Instead use HEET (not 
>> ISO-HEET), which is readily available at many convenience and auto parts 
>> stores, or denatured alcohol "solvent" frequently sold at hardware 
>> stores and the big box home centers.
>>
>> Use a stove designed to burn alcohol, not a white gas stove, of course.
>>
>> - blisterfree
>>
>>   
>>>  
>>>
>>> On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 9:46 PM, Tortoise <Tortoise73 at charter.net 
>>> <mailto:Tortoise73 at charter.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Question for someone with some technical knowledge.
>>>
>>>     I have a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol for use as a sterilizer. I'm
>>>     wondering if this can be used as a stove fuel. It's relatively
>>>     cheap. Or is
>>>     it too volatile?
>>>
>>>     
>>
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>