ALCOHOL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 177, 26 May 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

ALCOHOL.

IHE COMING FUEL. There is little doubt but that one .lay there will lie a very large development in the use of alcohol as a fuel. Petrol has gone to an almost prohibitive price —not because there are not still abundant supplies available, but because it has been almost impossible to obtain tonnage owing to the war. Th:s artificial inflation of prices is always likelv 10 occur from one cause or another, and this suggests the advisability of each country producing, as far :is possible, its own supplies of liquid fuel for internal combustion engines—more particularly for those of motor ears and commercial vehicles, for those are what create the principal demand for petrol. In many countries it would pay to grow potatoes, not as a lood, but especially for the manufacture 01 alcohol. Quality here is of no matter ; it is quantity that is wanted. Other vegetables could also be used for the raw material; but hi Germany and France, where there \u a large and ineroasineg output of industrial alcohol, potatoes appear to give the best results. Of course, it depends upon local conditions. There are parts of Australia where it might pay better to mak# alcohol from molasses—and there are densely wooded areas where it might be found more profitable to manufacture it from wood. . In the United States the distillation of waste hardwood lias become a very important industry of late years. The alcohol obtained is not usually consumed as fuel, became petrol is so cheap in that country, but even there it is anticipated that alcohol will compeet with petrol and kerosene eventually. Possibly it would have done

to already bad it not been for the ; power! m opposition of tho oil later- • UsttS. | it will give an idea of the importance : that, tho wood distillation industry lias | reached in the United States, when it j id .said that. I,2UU,<MJU cords arc distill- j ed per annum. The production oi , wood alcohol in 1915 \va> ten nuliion : gallons, nearly all obtained from waste ; \iood. This was to.- the most part con- ' sullied in the manufacture of celluloid, ' dye istufrs, denatured alcohol films, lor. ; malhyde, artificial leather and varnishes. American chemists anticipate that the discovery that larch contams ; ten per cent of agn lac tan yielding ; only galactose, may have far-reaching results. It is only a question of clevis- ; ing a method of fermentation that . \vi:l make it possible to cheaply convert tho falactose into ethyl alcohol, and alcohol fuel will then be ava:lab;e at a price that wiil enable it- to com- . p. te suceossf ully with petrol. Though :io method of fermentation has yet been discovered that would be Millie.eut y cheap it is not antieiuated thai this ciiiliculty will prove insurmountable. It would be interest.ng to know whether any or our own hardwoods possess characteristics similar to those of the larch, and it in one that our ' chemists would do uselul work in in- 1 vestigating, for in this direction it would seem l.es the road, to the cheap- 1 est possible source of alcohol. ; 'J'iie <|: option of using alcohol lor i fiiel is one to wh;<h Air Uussell (irim ■ wade In; ilossrs Fulton, (uinnvade and , Company) has given much study. Ho . has, indeed, driven his car on methy- 1 lated spirits more than once. The i experiment wins periectly sueeessi ul, ; as far as it went, thought to use al- ; eohol to advantage in an engine, the ; ci-mprisi-ion of the mixture, pr.or to • the explosion, miint be about twice as i:=gh as it. would bo ill ihe case of pet - ! ml. If such ;i compression were at- . tunpied with a petrol machine there: v.ou d he a premature explosion. Hut ; it is just because such a high com- •: [cession Is possible with it, that gives i alcohol such valuable characteristics as : a fuel. The higher the compression the j greater is the efficiency, an:! thus ; it comes about that at equal price al- j <:11 <ai can about compete with petrol ; a> a I i..'l. though "etrol has twice the i-alori :<• value of the other. In regard to the use of ah-obel in ' ■■ mflciiery motors and in the mo- , tors of tractors, the change from one , fuel to another would present 1 ttie diflictrty, for it would be mainly a ques- ■ tien of reducing <1 ■/•ranees so as to reduce the space in which coii;j.ve-.'-:ou taken place, and thereby got t!:e high- : er compression necessary for alcohol : Some exports, however, roe doubt: :I ; whether it. would be pra.-ie al to iso ; alcohol io exMing cars. There wouid ■ he an increased d h'icoltv in crank i"",n|>. in!- one tiling, and with ve-y > l 'gh comproKsmns the cars v.il.i <-;siy four-cylinder ongins-s would .uVr ••. Ivavily. Hearings, too, won'd be subii■ t. to harder work tlian He v v. re di ;i'_'lled I'ov. i'ni i; is net ,n--''i:)o. 1 that a sat factory cor engine coc'd ';e ; de--'i;ned for a'cobol fuel, j Mr Griniwade, in the h.-j-r i material to make alcohol from, »ugi i

posted that this would be •iioh-.v.-s. Already molasses are used for the parl>:>se, but enormous quantities, 11: .••I'll, are being waited every year .'l «J.ie.-:ns-land. Methylated ."•pints at pr.isoul costs 2s 3d per gallon (there is no excise on it), l.iut if the demand were greatly increased, a* would be the ease if alcoh<>l became a standard fuel, then the cost of production would be proportionately reduced. .Mr Grim wade said that an American company had actuary offered to produce it at .'(Jd per gallon. in übtammg alcohol from molasses, water is added, and the mixture is kept at a blood heat for_.sireray days. Then fermentation is set up. Carbonic acid gas is given off, and alcohol, which its carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in chemical combination, is rormed. It, is usually recovered with "Coffey'' stills, and it d>;tils about per con: pure. This is itrong enough lor all practical purposes, and indeed if it is any purer than this, nothing is gained, for it will always absorb water from the atmosphere until it gets to 'Jo per cent pure again. •'I feel certain that alcohol is the coming fuel," said Mr (irimwade. "It ha/s the advantage over mineral oil fuel that the world could use it without working on its capital. No oil dnposnts are unlimited, and every gallon burned, therefore, is gone for ever. On the other hand, the possibility for the production of alcohol may for "all practical purposes bo regarded as unlimited. 1 have suggested molasses as the mexst suitable material to make it from, partly because this can be obtained very cheaply at the present time in Australia, and partly because tiie constituents of alcohol as they ovist in molasses can be dealt with very easily. It could he produced here from wheat, maize and potatoes among other things, and also from wood, as it is in Europe and America."