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An alcohol stove is a simple system for cooking on a boat, requiring no lines or complicated hook-ups. It is a good alternative to LPG when not pressurized.

Marine alcohol stoves have fuel cannisters filled with an absorbent material to prevent spillage, an important safety feature if cooking whilst sailing.

Fuel

There are four common types of stove alcohol: methanol, ethanol, denatured alcohol, and isopropanol. They're found in hardware stores (sometimes), marine, RV and camping stores.

For an alcohol stove to burn cleanly, you need the fuel to be at 90% purity(180 proof), or better. All the stove manufacturer means is that the water content of the fuel should be as low as conveniently possible (below 10%).

Methanol

Once produced by the destructive distillation of wood. Methanol is now mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide. It is often added to denatured alcohol to render it undrinkable.

Other names:

Methyl hydrate
Wood alcohol
Carbinol

Properties:

Burns cleanly
Has coolest flame.
Flame is colorless.
Toxic if ingested.

Brands: Heet (yellow bottle), Pyroil, Recochem and TurboPower.

Ethanol

A high-proof alcohol fuel which can be distilled from a wide variety of biomass feedstock.

Other names:

Ethyl alcohol
Ethyl hydrate
Grain alcohol
Drinking alcohol

Properties:

Burns cleanly.
Flame is colorless.
Non-toxic.

Brands: Everclear.

Positive Sustainable Development Goals:

SDG 3 (health, well-being) clean-burning.
SDG 7 (energy) renewable.
SDG 13 (climate change) renewable, no smoke, emissions or soot.
SDG 5 (gender) if used instead of woodfuel.
SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) if produced domestically and sustainably.
SDG 1 (poverty) development of alternative feedstocks has potential to improve yields and farmer income.
SDG 2 (hunger) development of alternative feedstocks has potential to improve food security.

Negative Sustainable Development Goals:

SD5 15 (life on land) large scale mono-agricultural production can be environmentally damaging.

Denatured alcohol

Ethanol with additives (10-50% isopropyl alcohol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, or methyl isobutyl ketone), made to taste bad to discourage people from drinking it.

Other names:

Methylated spirits
Meths
Denatured rectified spirit
Bio-ethanol

Properties:

Ethanol with additives (such as methanol or isopropanol).
Burns cleanly.
Toxic if ingested.

Brands: Barrettine, Bio-Flame, Bird, Crown, Diggers, Eco-Feu, Econol, EkoFuel, Flying Tiger, Klean-Strip, La Hacienda, Mangers, Moko, Mylands, Nu-Flame, Parks, Polylab, Rain-X, Recochem, Rosak, S-L-X, Startex, Sunnyside, SupaDec, Vango and Vivek.

Isopropanol

Sold with different levels of purity (70%, 95%, 99% etc), with water added.

Other names:

Isopropyl alcohol
Propan-2-ol
2-propanol
IPA
Rubbing alcohol

Properties:

Toxic if consumed.
Burns with hot flame.
Leaves dirty residue.
Flame is colorless.

Brands: Chemtools, Diggers, Kleen-Flo, Heet (red bottle), Pyroil, Recochem, TurboPower and Uline.

Alcohol Stove Usage

Do not fill when hot.
Do not fill while operating.
Do not overfill.
Re-fill away from stove.
Use a small bottle, with a narrow spout to re-fill fuel. Or one with a safety nozzle.
Store in closed containers, mainly due to the combustible nature of the ethanol vapour-air mix at certain concentrations, but also due to the possibility of evaporation.

Resources

Tetkoba's Alcohol Stove Addict

Sustainable Development Goals United Nations

BLEENS cooking solutions