ALCOHOL FOR POWER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 167, 12 July 1918, Page 7

ALCOHOL FOR POWER.

USE FOR WASTE PRODUCTS

A lecture on "Alcohol iu its Industrial and Scientific Aspects" was delivered at an open meeting of the Auckland Institute on Monday evening by Mr A. Wyllie, city electrical engineer., (reports the Herald.) There was a good, .attendance of niembers of the institute and of the general public. The lecturer stated that alcohol -was a form of canbon, as were charcoal and diamonds, and explained that 130,000 carbon compounds had been investigated, which was a greater number than the 'known compounds of all tho other elements put together. With tlie aid of laboratory apparatus andi a number of lantern slides Mr Wyllie showed how alcohol may be produced by the fermentation of sugar solution, _ the process being stimulated by the inclusion of yeast. Any substance which contained, sugar or substances, such a.3 starch, that could be changed into sugar, could be used for the production of alcohol. Thus the spirit could be obtained from a large Uum'ber of waste products, such as waste fruit and potatoes, sawdust and wood.. In France it used 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 liquor. To give- an idea of the immense possibilities of the industry. .Mr Wvllie mentioned that a ton of wood would produce 18 to 20 gallons of spirit. Mr v\\yllie gave a practical illustration of how alcohol was" separated from water and explained that it was possible to convert acetylene gag into alcohol. Speaking of the cost of production, the ( lecturer said that where barl.ev, beet, or molasses was used the cost* of material was fairly, high, but the actual cost of production was small. Before the war the German Government had given great encouragement to the industry, .so that spirits could 'be sold, from 9d to Is a gallon. Iu 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 the world's source* of mineral oils from which petrol was obtained were limited, and this fact gave cx-eat importance to alcohol asia power producer. It iad .beeu proved that alcohol when used in a properly-designed, internal com'bustion engine had a hiW er rate of efficiency than petrol. \h eohol vapour could be compassed to a far greater extent than petrol vapour and it was safer. The ar 3n against its use that it caused col"S had been disproved, for in the Sriv there had not been con?combustion. The value of al™ £2 4°e %"**-&£ ' been P~'Sd tv. ~» I ?£ a 153 Taere AvS * every reason why the restrictions of the JzZb: h moJfled P ° n 3tS manUfactu - *ou6