Which type of alcohol on board the Jönköping turned out to be of no value to the salvage crew?

the enthalpy of formation of water is given as -285.8kj/mol, which states that the enthalpy of formation is negative.

negative enthalpy of formation indicates that the heat is released during the reaction process. the heat is released from reaction to the surroundings the enthalpy is expressed with a negative sign with the energy given out in the reaction process.

the formation of water takes place by giving out heat which is -285.8 kj/mol.

hydrocarbons are organic compounds that contain only hydrogens and carbons. they can be saturated (those which contain only carbon-carbon single bonds) or unsaturated (those which contain carbon-carbon double or triple bonds) in nature. hydrocarbons can undergo several reactions like substitution, elimination etc.  

on substituting one or more hydrogen atoms in hydrocarbon it results in the formation of haloalkane. as the halogen atoms are large compared to the carbon and hydrogen atoms, due to which the molecular weight increases and the bond become polar because of presence electronegative halogen atom and results in the increase in boiling point of the haloalkane.

thus, the correct option is (b) that is the boiling point of the new compound increases on substituting a hydrogen atom with a halogen in a hydrocarbon.