NEW FUEL FROM MAIZE COBS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14710, 30 June 1948, Page 4

NEW FUEL FROM MAIZE COBS

possibilities! of FUTURE'

More Power For Car

Engines

Use Of Alcohol-Water

Injection

Injecting alcohol and water into car engines may bring a day of: Kigh-power performance on lowgrade gasoline; trucks and cars climbing hills in high instead of creeping up in low gear; economical driving cn the flat, with a ready surge of power when needed; part of your power coming from maize cobs, or grains.

These possibilities from use of alcohol as liquid fuel were described by Dr G. E. Hilbert, Director of the Northern Regional Research Laboratory, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to the National Farm Chsmurgic Council Conference. There are some “ifs and buts.”

A gallon of alcohol can bo blended with nine gallons of low-grade gasoline to make 10 gallons of premium antiknock fuel, he said. The blends would not require any changes in engine design or readjustment. Something different, for the extra burst of power, are gadgets already available which can inject mixtures of alcohol and water. This was done with planes during the war. The alcohol injections would take trucks uphill in high.

Such power is needed only occasionally. The rest of the time engines could operate on , cheaper, lower octane gasoline. This would save oil reserve, for it takes more crude oil to produce high-octane gasoline. The biggest ‘Tt” is the present high price of alcohol, Dr Hilbert said. Sven if maize costs five shillings a bushel, alcohol would cost two and sixpence a gallon under present recovery practices. But this may not mean so much within a few years.

“Regardless of this price difference, there are many instances where the use of alcohol-water injection with low-grade gasoline will be cheaper and give better operation than premium grade gasoline.’ Present petroleum reserves apparently are enough for many years, and plants are being built to make synthetic fuels from coal and natural gas. If future demands outstrip this supply,, or send costs up, .alcohol from farm products may enter the picture, Dr Hilbert said. Two types of farm products offer possibilities for liquid fuels. One is starchy crops, like grains. The other is agricultural residues, like maize cobs, sugarcane bagasse and straws.

Methods of making alcohol from grains arc well known and efficient m many ways, and alcohol costs will probably depend mere ’on grain costs than technical improvements, he continued. Still, production costs may be reduced. The Peoria laboratory developed an enzyme, from a fungus, which can substitute for malt in fermenting grain. This one substitue would make ethyl alcohol from grain cheaper. The same laboratory also is studying the cost of yields , of making alcohol from maize cobs and other residues. Answers may be available in another year. The problem isn’t making alcohol from the cobs, but doing it economically. One of the biggest costs is collecting the cobs.