Probably a re-hash, but: Ethanol aka ethyl alcohol aka grain alcohol is by a slight margin the best fuel in these non-pressurized burners. It burns very cleanly and has a tiny bit more fuel value than methanol aka methyl alcohol aka wood alcohol. It SHOULD be the fuel of choice for pop can stoves but: The problem with ethanol is.... it's expensive as heck because BATF puts a sin tax, er, excise tax on it because it's drinkable.

So ethanol is "de-natured" to make it poisonous to drink. Exact ingredients vary and BATF must approve the denaturing ingredients/proportions, some of which are pretty nasty things to burn. AFAIK, the MAJOR ingredient used in denaturing is methanol, which is fine - I have read that it's as much as 50% and have also read that there are really only a couple (two) suppliers of denatured alcohol in the US - their products are the house brands for everyone else. The other ingredients used to denature are petro chemical solvents, some of which you would NOT want to burn on purpose. But denatured is easy to obtain, looks like it burns cleanly, and is affordable.

Methanol is the "racing fuel" and is by far the least expenssive to retail purchase if you go to a local oil company and purchase it in "bulk" - that means bring your own container, DOT approved and labeled. This also burns exceptionally well and has nearly the same heat value as grain alcohol. Years ago my family (me as a kid) frequently used a marine-type alcohol heater (think giant zippo with an adjustable wick a la oil lamp) and this is the fuel we used in it - relatively cheap for alcohol, no additives, clean burning, etc. I own the heater nowadays and don't recall using it since aquiring a propane-fuel cat heater 20+ years ago. I have not purchased any methanol recently, but I expect that it is little more than gasoline these days on a volume basis - maybe $4 or $5 per gallon in small quantities, less in larger quantities. (Which makes it, like all alcohols, expensive in terms of fuel value - gasoline has nearly 10 times the heat value as meths on a volume basis)

Then there is isopropanol aka isopropyl alcohol aka rubbing alcohol. It has more heat value than the other two and as a consequence burns a little sooty in pop can stoves. The soot really isn't that big of a deal unless it just bugs a person. Stoves will run on common isoprop (70%), but that's a pretty poor fuel - the 91% mentioned is much better, and 100% is available - read the labels on fuel line de-icers like HEET - some de-icers use methanol and others use isopropanol; the trend has been towards iso for some time. If all you need is 8 - 12 oz of fuel, a buck or so is all de-icer costs. If it is a brand that comes with a screw-on vs press-on cap, you also have a fuel bottle for that weekend light-weight trip.

Expanding for a moment on the fuel de-icer: Hit the automotive aisles / stores and get one of each (meth and iso) and try them out to see which suits you best. All things considered, including the small amount most folks will probably use, this may be the best way to go. Disclaimer: I have not scrutinized the additives (if any) on these, and they will vary by brand anyway. Odds are high that there are little to no additives since both are already poisonous to drink and the alcohol is what does 100% of the de-icing (water and alcohol are infinetley soluable in each other), so it would not make sense to add anything to them.

Edit: HEET brand from Gold Eagle has two types - methanol and isopropyl. I did not find MSDS, but the claims and description of the Iso-HEET is the same as this brand's MSDS, which is 100% isopropanol. End Edit

Re-edit: HEET is 99% methanol see MSDS and Iso-HEET is 99% isopropanol see MSDS . Dunno what the 1% additive is, but it's probably a corosion inhibitor. Either should be fine to burn IMO. Obviously other brands will vary (unless Gold Eagle is the actual supplier). End Edit.

Now go burn some fuel...

HTH,

Tom