ALCOHOL FOR POWER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1851, 11 July 1918, Page 2

ALCOHOL FOR POWER.

LECTURING on “Alcohol in its Industrial and Scientific Aspects,” at Auckland this week, Mr A. Wyliie, city electrical engineer, stated that alcohol was a form of carbon, as were charcoal and diamonds, and explained that 120,000 carbon compounds had been investigated, which was a greater number than the known compounds of ail the other elements put together. With the aid of laboratory apparatus and a number of lantern slides, Mr Wyliie showed how alcohol may be pro-

duced by fho fermentation of! sugar solution, Iho process being stimulated by the inelusion of yeast. Any substance which contained sugar or substances, such as starch, that could be changed into sugar, could be used for (he production of alcohol. Thus the spirit could be obtained from a large number of waste products, such as waste fruit and potatoes, sawdust, and wood. In France it u.-ed to be a usual practice in the country districts to save such waste products for their conversion into alcohol, travelling distilleries moving about the country' to deal with the fermented lirpior. To give an idea of the immense possibilil ies of the industry, Mr \Vvllie mentioned that a ton of wood would produce IS to 2(1 gallons of spirit. Air Wyllie gave a practical illustration of how alcohol was separated from water, and explained that it was possible to convert acetylene gas into alcohol. Speaking of the cost of production, (he lecturer said that where barley, bed, or molasses was used the cost of material was fairly high, but the actual cost of production was very small. Before the war the (ierman (loveniment had given great encouragement to the industry, so that spirit could be sold from thl to Is a gallon. In England up to that time it had not been possible to produce spirit for less than 2s a gallon, but: experiments made with peat had shown that the total cost of production could be reduced to a few pence a gallon. Speaking of the future, the lecturer said that (he world’s sources of mineral oils from which petrol was obtained were limited, and this fact gave great importance to alcohol as a power producer. It had been proved that alcohol when used in a properly-designed internal combustion engine, had a higher rate of efficiency than petrol. Alcohol vapour could be compressed to a far greater extent than petrol vapour, and it was safer. The argument against its use that it caused corrosion had been disproved, for in the early experiments there had not been complete combustion. The value of alcohol for power had been proved during the war, and there was every reason why the restrictions of the English laws upon its manufacture should be modified.