Damn this thing is loud.....

"northern skink".....There is very little difference between Methanol and Ethanol. Ethanol is for drinking and Methanol has an additive to prevent drinking. The Methanol additive will make you extreemly sick or cause possible death if you drink it. Ethanol will not. The main reason Methanol has this additive is to eliminate it from the governments taxes. These taxes are applyed to producers of Ethanol..... That is why the "feds" would arrest people for producing illegal alcohol (?) To bypass this tax law additives were introduced to the Ethanol and they called it Methanol thereby circumventing the tax for that product.
There is no basic difference in the engergy factor between either of these products.

 

Actually methanol and ethanol are completely different compounds although they are both classified as alcohols. Ethanol is C2H5OH with 11,500 BTU/LB. Methanol is CH3OH with 9500 BTU/LB. Methanol is methanol, it isn't ethanol with an additive. Most methanol is derived from natural gas. Even in its purest state you CANNOT drink methanol... you will go blind and depending on how much you ingest possibly die. The confusion arises because some ethanol is known as "methylated" or "denatured", methanol (or any other poisonous chemical) is added to the ethanol to prevent people from consuming it. This additive is generally present in small amounts so the end product is still principally ethanol, maintaining around 11,500 BTU/LB. This is what circumvents liquor taxes. In the case of E85, 15% gasoline is added, so you are reaching a BTU equivalent somewhere between that of ethanol and that of gasoline.

 

Thanks, Joe and Cool33.