Camping Stove Design Part IV: Utilizing Isopropyl Alcohol as a Viable Stove Fuel

Isopropyl is an alcohol that doesn't aspirate adequately on it own. With the help of swirling techniques, air injection and air entrainment, I show that isopropyl has a lot more merits as an ultralight camp stove fuel than it is otherwise given credit for.

Isopropyl can be purchased in concentrations of 50% at dollar stores, 70 & 91% at drugstores 95% from vendors online and 99%+ from auto parts stores. Stay away from Red bottled Heet because it contains a fuel injector cleaner.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• ultralight
• camping
• stove
• burner
• vortex
• swirl
• isopropyl
• methanol
• ethanol
• backpacking
• design
• combustion

[KaiS2K]

Absolutely incredible video. I too am one that avoids Iso fuel due to its dirty nature however I can't deny the higher energy potential by using it. The truth is creating a stove to use methanol, ethanol or DA is easier than one that burns Iso clean as your vid demonstrates, it takes some doing. Since you pointed out that Iso needs more air, could a stove design that feeds 3x less fuel than a typical alc stove be feasible?

[BrokenAeroVT]

@KaiS2K When iso burns as a pool fire, it is probably burning with a mass AFR of 6-7. You need 10.3 (more air or a higher mass rate of air over mass rate of fuel). You can also do that by reducing the mass rate of fuel. This is basically what is happening when a can of iso is burning and you lower the pot closer to the flame. You will see the ratio improve with the blueing of the flame, but you also see the flame calm down a bit. This is the mass rate of fuel being reduced.

[BrokenAeroVT]

@LoveRise You're welcome, your sweetness.

[LoveRise]

@BrokenAeroVT Okay so the key is the 1/2 inch. I'll try that with my tealight tests as well. Thanx!

[BrokenAeroVT]

@LoveRise You won't have to punch any holes in this cat can, just use a stand not more than 1/2 inch gap between cat can rim and pot. If you do punch holes, you will raise the iso vaporization rate and risk changing the ratio of air to fuel negatively. The faster it burns (air sucked in and burned inside can boils the iso faster) the less efficient the burn is, and it can turn yellow and soot.

[LoveRise]

@BrokenAeroVT Thanks my friend, I appreciate your feedback. Strange but true I've never built a cat stove or used one. I picked up a cool tealight holder with sort of a built in pot stand that I scored at a thrift store yesterday for a buck that I'm going to experiment with this weekend using iso and hand sanitizer.

[BrokenAeroVT]

@LoveRise If I remember correctly, methanol doesn't have toxic effects until about 60ml are ingested. That would be about the amount of alcohol used to boil 8 cups of water. Wikipedia might be a little better informed than me. I also heard from a brewer on Youtube that the first bit of every distilled batch of ethanol is methanol and that it has to be purged off before bottling. Won't stop me from drinking a little wine now and then, hehe! Cheers!

[BrokenAeroVT]

@LoveRise I have never experimented with hand sanitizer, but I don't see why it wouldn't work in the same fashion described earlier.

[BrokenAeroVT]

@LoveRise A simple cat can with a pot set no more than 1/2 inch above it will burn 91% iso blue and usually not soot your pot. At the last moment of flame, the small amount of iso vaporizes more quickly. When this happens, it soots. So put a little more than you need in the dish to keep this from happening. The stove will be a little slow for most people's taste. Usually above 8-10 minutes. The item in the vid is just an experiment, not a stove. Thanks for your comment, Loverise.

[LoveRise]

Impressive info shared here. Now I just want to find a small stove that will burn iso efficiently. Any recommendations? My real dream is to find a stove that will boil 2 cups of water using 62 percent hand sanitizer since I always carry that and I'm concerned with the toxicity of Heet