For Alcohol Awareness Month, when specialists work to alert consumers to the harms of drinking, some scientists and inventors are looking to make the public aware of the alternative, everyday uses of alcohol that consumers may not have thought of before, such as powering batteries and household devices.

Bob Hockaday, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is conducting experiments to produce a mechanism that would allow electric devices to run on alcohol. He said that alcohol-powered batteries could eventually replace batteries in future hand-held devices.

“In general what we have been looking at doing is making a fuel cell that runs on alcohol,” Hockaday said. “You can make a miniaturized fuel cell with a miniaturized fuel supply or you could also make one that is bigger and you can run computers all the way to cars.”

For Hockaday, the bottom line is that alcohol, though not as efficient as fuel, is better for the environment because it produces less waste.

“The plan of attack is to run those things on alcohol because [they would be] smaller, lighter, more convenient and more environmentally friendly,” he said. “In the long-run, it is a battery with nothing left — when you use it up it turns into vapor. It is not terribly efficient but it doesn’t leave any waste products.”

Hockaday explained that the new technology would be based on a miniature self-starting fire heater, as opposed to lighter fluid that requires a flame to create electricity.

These new appliances are in growing demand, Hockaday said. People want to keep their fingers and toes warm and the miniature heater could safely do that.

“You can use enzymes to make fuel cells run,” Hockaday said, adding that the devices work well with chemicals found in alcohol, such as ethanol, methanol and formaldehyde.

David Hanson, a sociology professor and expert on alternative alcohol uses at the State University of New York at Potsdam, created an alcohol facts and trivia website to make information about alcohol’s everyday uses more accessible.

“Since alcohol is an anti-inflammatory, it helps with inflamed joints,” he said. “Gin is a diuretic so it is useful when people are trying to shed liquids from their body to lose weight and is also helpful in menstruation.”

Hanson also outlined many overlooked — and odd — uses of alcohol, including its use as currency in the Appalachian Mountains.

“More people are becoming aware that alcohol is a flavor enhancer and use it more in cooking, sort of like the condiment salt,” Hanson said. “Brandy’s uses are more historical — it was used in thermometers; and rum used to be used as shampoo to clean hair.”

Hanson cited Brazil as one of the first countries to offer the option of running a car on gasoline or alcohol, by using ethanol.

“Their ethanol comes from sugar cane and because of their abundance,” he said. “They will probably be energy independent. That is fantastic – a big breakthrough. In racecars, they used alcohol because it is just a great fuel.”

Shelley Minteer, an assistant professor of chemistry at Saint Louis University, said alcohol fuel cells have been successfully used in chemical reactions that produce electricity, but scientists are still trying to perfect these new batteries.

Minteer said the scientists are trying to imitate processes in the human body to create efficient alcohol-powered batteries.

“We are trying to develop alternate energy sources,” she said. “So we look at the fact that humans are made of different entities. We try to mimic that process on an electron surface so we can essentially make far more efficient batteries that consume alcohol.”

Ethanol is more readily available and less toxic, Minteer said.

“Ethanol is more efficient,” she said. “We have used a number of different alcohol sources, from vodka to gin to white wine. We can even run on flat beer.”