State-side, the business environment for the industrial alcohol industry had been primed by a 1906 law. It stipulated that alcohol produced domestically for industrial purposes be tax free, so long as it was denatured. Methanol was itself a denaturing agent, a chemical added to potable ethanol to make it unfit for human consumption.
Early wood alcohol plants used pressured environments and acids to break down the indigestible cellulose which accounts for about 50% of wood’s mass. Sawdust and wood scraps from hardwood, birch, beech, maple, oak, elm, and alder were favorites of the industry. The acid wood mixture was agitated and heated by steam to over 300℉ for an hour. Then the acid would be neutralized with lime, and the resulting sugary soup could be digested by yeast into alcohol. Normal distillation ensued to make more concentrated chemicals. These early plants could produce 300 pounds of fermentable sugar from 1 ton of pine sawdust.
As industrial chemicals became increasingly important, new and more efficient techniques were developed. Hydrogenation (the addition of hydrogen atoms to carbon) and dehydrogenation (the removal of hydrogen atoms from a compound) made the production of methanol easier, and removed wood from the process entirely. Both processes used metals like nickel, copper, or palladium to catalyse reactions and allow them to occur at lower temperatures. Most of these chemical breakthroughs came from innovation in the production of ammonium which used similar reactions. Eventually, in 1963 two British chemists, Davies and Snowdon, invented a new process catalyzed by copper, zinc, and chromium that synthesized methanol directly from natural gas. This process, Low Pressure Methanol, is still used today.
Modern industrial methanol is used as a precursor to many other useful chemicals such as formaldehyde. As a race, we produce over 85 million metric tons of methanol annually. Among its many uses are anti-freeze, perfume, chemical solvents, shellac, racing fuel, fuel in chafing dishes, and printing solutions.
The one thing that methanol is decidedly not used for is drinking (and breathing as it also has noxious fumes). When metabolized, it causes acute poisoning and dissolves the optic nerve, doing permanent damage to vision if not blinding entirely.
Wood alcohol poisonings began to come into the public eye just as industrial production began. In 1917, the New York State Coroner’s office noted an uptick in wood alcohol deaths as they began testing the livers of those who died inexplicably. Prohibition would not improve on this trend. Indeed, most cases of methanol poisonings globally are the result of illegal alcohol production during which corners are cut to produce cheap and unsafe liquor. In the United States most wood alcohol poisonings involve the ingestion of antifreeze or windshield wiper fluid. Inhalation poisonings usually result from carburetor cleaner.
Ironically, the only cure for methanol poisoning is ethanol. When you find yourself going blind after one cocktail, drink another from a different bottle. Methanol is only poisonous when the body has begun to break it down. The enzymes we have metabolize ethanol more quickly than methanol (luckily!). Having lots of ethanol in the body blocks methanol metabolization. In other words, ethanol gets to cut in line and methanol gets flushed out in urine. Of course, this should only be used in emergencies.
Wood alcohol may sound natural and alluring, but it is deadly poisonous. In fact, it is used to denature normal ethanol that is being used for industrial purposes. It may serve as a silly reminder, but one can never be too safe, drinking is not an industrial purpose.
