Regarding denatured alcohol, it cannot be easily distilled into a purer
form; hench why it does not carry a tax stamp in most areas.  When ethanol
is mixed with water and benzene it forms a mixture called an azeotrop.
Simple distillation will yield a mixture of the three chemicals.  You
cannot get rid of the benzene and convert it into an ethanol that can be
consumed.  There are ways to remove the benzene but they involve greater
complexity than simple distilation.  Perhaps someone who is closer to
their course work in organic and physical chemistry can illuminate this
point.
 
When I studied chemistry in the 1970's, a pint of pure ethanol purchased
in a liquor store sold for $6, purchased by our lab for scientific
purposes, it cost only $0.95.  The difference was the tax the state
imposed.  Denatured ethanol was very cheap because the ability to remove
the denaturants did not make converting this alcohol into a drinkable
ethanol economically feasible.
 
If you want to drink it, by regular liquor, beer, wine or 100%, 200 proof
ethanol.  If it is denatured only use it for the purpose it was meant for
and that does not mean human consumption.
 
Charlie
******************************************************************************
Charlie Sturm, Jr
Research Associate - Section of Invertebrate Zoology
                     Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA
Assistant Professor - Family Medicine
 
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