Denatured alcohols

Jillian Gregory <jilliangregory.jg<-at->gmail<.>com> writes

>I am a freelance paper conservator (UK) and I'm in the process of
>applying for a license from HMRC in order to purchase Industrial
>Denatured Alcohol (IDA), formerly known as Industrial Methylated
>Spirit (IMS).  HMRC have however questioned why I cannot just use
>Completely Denatured Alcohol (CDA) instead.

Your request is rather dependant on what the alcohol is to be used
for--presumably as a solvent rather than a dehydrating agent?  In
the BioSciences "spirit" is used a lot as a fluid preservative and
there are debates concerning adulterants/contaminants added to
ethanol by EU legislation. These comprise wood naphtha (you
mentioned) but also camphor and ME Ketone which can have
deteriorative effects on both specimens and containers. This is
making the purchasing of CDA vs IDA even more complicated.

I am hoping that Dirk Neumann might reply to your query as he is one
at the forefront of this problem but you are welcome to reply to me
off-list if there are no other answers posted to the DistList.

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:38
                   Distributed: Monday, March 9, 2015
                       Message Id: cdl-28-38-005
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