Sciencemadness Discussion Board

The best Alcohols for Heating

symboom - 27-10-2011 at 17:48

here is the list of common ones
also does any one know what is flame temperatures of these

denatured alcohol found in hardware store
naphtha use a lighter fluid in zippos
Kerosene except its expensive
hexamine camping tablets
acetone in calcium acetate and isopropanol form the infamous gel fuel
isopropanol was told it does not burn very hot -boiling water


[Edited on 28-10-2011 by symboom]

Adas - 28-10-2011 at 03:27

I think denaturated one is the best, because it is cheap.

Endimion17 - 28-10-2011 at 05:19

Since when are naptha, kerosene, hexamine and acetone alcohols?

Intergalactic_Captain - 28-10-2011 at 05:23

Depends what you need it for. If you're heating a test-tube, denatured alcohol or IPA in a wick-type burner would be at the top of that list - 91 or 99% IPA being the cheapsest, the water content negligible if you're only boiling something.

...However, one thing I've never seen mentioned is the trangia-style stove - look up "pop can stoves" or "beer can stoves" - Numerous designs exist, and with 2 empty cans and a pocket knife you can build a decent burner suitable for boiling water, heating a can of beans, or with a little ingenuity an RBF or FBF... Have yet to try them in laboratory applications, but keeping one in a backpack isn't a bad idea - they really do work as well as advertised...

symboom - 30-10-2011 at 14:16

i ment common chemicals for heating it wont let me change it originaly i was showing just common alcohols but these are also used for camping and heating purpose IPA ive used not very hot burning using it a boiling water. does any one have a list of the flame temps of these fuels.

Neil - 30-10-2011 at 15:35

The heat values for all of your listed fuels are very easily obtained by googling or looking at the relevant wiki page of flame temperatures.

strontiumred - 31-10-2011 at 06:40

When I first used my alcohol burner I used isopropanol but I found this created lots of ugly black soot on the bottom of the tubes I was heating so now I used denatured ethanol (or meths as we call in in the UK). Seems to be hotter and creates no soot.

fledarmus - 31-10-2011 at 10:12

Quote: Originally posted by Neil  
The heat values for all of your listed fuels are very easily obtained by googling or looking at the relevant wiki page of flame temperatures.

Or by testing:

Energy Content of Fuels lab