Denatured Alcohol

Real World Example

Imagine you're trying to keep a delicious cake safe from being eaten by everyone at a party. To deter people from eating it, you might decide to sprinkle some bitter-tasting herbs on top. This is similar to denatured alcohol, where ethanol has additives like bad-tasting or poisonous substances to prevent people from drinking it recreationally. Just as the bitter herbs make the cake undesirable to eat, the additives in denatured alcohol make the ethanol undesirable—and unsafe—to consume.