You might be thinking of propanol.
But as I remember, wood alcohol burns with an “invisible” flame. You have to turn the lights out to see the flame. That makes it kinda dangerous if you get it on your clothing and catch it on fire...it’s hard to put out a flame that you can’t see.
Then again, I might be getting methanol and propanol mixed up.
We’ve already got government mandated ethanol added to our gasoline. If this stuff is so great, why don’t we just make our ethanol additive a 50-50 mix of ethanol and methanol?
“But as I remember, wood alcohol burns with an “invisible” flame. You have to turn the lights out to see the flame. That makes it kinda dangerous if you get it on your clothing and catch it on fire...it’s hard to put out a flame that you can’t see.”
Just as surely as we put in an additive to make natural gas stink, we can put in an additive to make methanol burn blue or some other color.
It's kind of funny to watch an indy car driver just sit there, and suddenly jump out and roll around for no apparent reason. OTOH, we won't we wearing flame-proof suits so we'll immediately know if we're on fire, plus everything that the methanol fire ignites will give off normal smoke and flame.
If this stuff is so great, why don’t we just make our ethanol additive a 50-50 mix of ethanol and methanol?
Because current engines can't handle it. I put unknowingly put a lower methanol mix in my car back in the 90s and things were going so bad took it to a mechanic. Luckily he just told me to put in straight gas and the problem would solve itself.