Denatured alcohol is ethanol with added adulterants that make it useless for consumption as an intoxicating beverage by rendering it toxic or extremely distasteful to drink, but still useful for industrial processes or as a household chemical. This is done in order to make it exempt from taxes that apply to potable alcohol. Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, is a flammable, colorless chemical compound, one of the alcohols that is most often found in alcoholic beverages. ... Drunkenness, in its most common usage, is the state of being intoxicated with alcohol (i. ... The word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids. ... For a list of biologically injurious substances, including toxins and other materials, as well as their effects, see poison. ... Household chemicals are chemicals that are commonly found and used in and around the average household. ... Alcoholic beverages are drinks containing ethanol, popularly called alcohol. ...

There are diverse industrial uses for ethanol, and therefore literally hundreds of recipes for denaturing ethanol. Typical additives are methanol, isopropanol, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl isobutyl ketone, denatonium, and even aviation gasoline. Methanol, also known as methyl alcohol or wood alcohol, is a chemical compound with chemical formula CH3OH. It is the simplest alcohol, and is a light, volatile, colourless, tasteless, flammable, poisonous liquid with a very faint odor. ... Isopropyl alcohol or isopropanol is a common name for 2-propanol, an alcohol commonly used for application to the skin, and popularly referred to as rubbing alcohol. ... 2-Butanone is a manufactured organic chemical but it is also present in the environment from natural sources. ... A pollutant that the government wants added to ethanol alcohol to prevent it from being used as a beverage, but only as a vehicle fuel instead. ... Denatonium, usually available as denatonium benzoate (e. ... Avgas is a high-octane fuel used for aircraft and, in the past, racing cars. ...

In this sense of the word, denatured means "a specific property of ethanol, its usefulness as a beverage, is removed". The ethanol molecule is not denatured in the sense that its chemical structure is altered. Cheese In biochemistry, denaturation is a structural change in biomolecules such as nucleic acids and proteins, such that they are no longer in their native state (the shape which allows for optimal biological activity). ... Chemical structure is the arrangement of atoms within a molecule, usually linked by covalent bonds. ...

See also

• methylated spirit