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Denatured alcohol, also called methylated spirits, is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, somewhat bad tasting, foul smelling or nauseating, to discourage recreational consumption. In some cases it is also dyed.Wood alcohol, also called methyl alcohol or methanol, is an extremely poisonous chemical found in paint remover.
Denatured alcohol – found in bottles at the hardware store or the drug store – is also ethanol. But it has been poisoned to keep people from drinking it. It turns out that ethanol is a good solvent, and also useful as a fuel. And it is pretty cheap to make it. But if you sold ethanol for $2 a gallon at the hardware store, lots of people would be drinking it to avoid the “sin taxes” on beer, wine and whiskey. So they poison the ethanol and sell it without the sin taxes.
Methanol is sometimes found in windshield wiper fluid to keep it from freezing, and it is also used as the fuel for Champ cars and Indy cars. It is sometimes called wood alcohol because it used to be made from wood, but today its made from natural gas. Methanol is poisonous, and it is one of the chemicals that can be used to poison denatured alcohol.
