Why can’t we drink industrial ethanol diluted to, say, 15%, but we can drink ethanol made from yeast?

Question

Why can’t we drink industrial ethanol diluted to, say, 15%, but we can drink ethanol made from yeast?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Industrial ethanol comes with a lot of impurities like sulfur which can lead to blindness. There are a number of chemical processes which produce ethanol and it usually gets purified in a distillation column. The more pure it has to be; the more expensive it is. Industrial use doesn’t care about the impurities but you wouldn’t want to put it in your body

Sulfur in ethanol can cause blindness