[xeebexa]

Hi there everyone I have just received a very strange sample from a friend and the thing with this sample is that it has the label [Ethanol ethyl alcohol 96%] on it and smells sweet and sugary (suggesting ethanol) and yet when I set it on fire it burns yellow with some blue going on at the bottom of the flame.
I have some pure ethanol which I know is ethanol and when I burn it in the dark it burns totally blue with a tiny bit of yellow on top of the flame.

When would ethanol burn yellow?
Would it probably burn yellow if taken from fruit instead of being synthetic ethanol?
Are there any alcohols or chemicals that look and smell the same as ethanol and even have almost the similar evaporation rates but are not ethanol?

This is getting somewhat interesting for me personally.

[chenbeier]

The yellow Flame comes from Sodium and other organic compounds like petrol or oil., what can be used as additive.

[xeebexa]

The yellow Flame comes from Sodium and other organic compounds like petrol or oil., what can be used as additive.

Thank you so much for the reply. so basically you are saying that this is probably 94% ethanol and 6% some remnant oils, like from the petroleum that was synthesized to produce this ethanol, right?

[jeffmoonchop]

96% ethanol is a pretty low grade ethanol.

[DrCMS]

96% ethanol is pretty low grade ethanol.

No is it the best normal distillation you can achieve; 96% ethanol 4% water is the azetropic composition.

[xeebexa]

96% ethanol is a pretty low grade ethanol.

well I am not sure you can get higher purity using distillation. In any case even if you magically got 100% ethanol from distillation wouldn't it absorb water from air and get somewhere close to 96% after a while?

Also I am not sure what accounts for the yellow flame.

[Babcock_Hall]

There are methods to obtain ethanol that is almost free of water.  All solvents will pick up atmospheric water, unless they are in tightly sealed containers.

[xeebexa]

There are methods to obtain ethanol that is almost free of water.  All solvents will pick up atmospheric water, unless they are in tightly sealed containers.

Thank you but I am still not sure what accounts for the yellowish flame. Are there some alcohols that smell the same and or are very similar to ethanol yet they burn yellow?

[kriggy]

There are methods to obtain ethanol that is almost free of water.  All solvents will pick up atmospheric water, unless they are in tightly sealed containers.

Thank you but I am still not sure what accounts for the yellowish flame. Are there some alcohols that smell the same and or are very similar to ethanol yet they burn yellow?

The yellow color comes from sodium which is present in the alcohol. as already mentioned by @chenbeier

[Borek]

I am not convinced it is sodium, vodka burns blue.