SYNTHETIC ALCOHOL

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1931, Page 8

SYNTHETIC ALCOHOL

SUBJECT FOR RESEARCH. : .1 POSSIBLE NEW INDUSTRY. In the opinion of Mr. T. A. Glendinning, one of the speakers at the conference of ■ the Institute of Chemistry, meeting in Nelson, there is no industry however small which cannot profitably spend some money and a good deal of time in forecasting and. investigating along lines cf chemical research. As an illustration of possible lines of research, Mr. Glendinning referred to our vast importations .of motor spirit, and the importance of discovering how to produce a synthetic motor spirit, “In the year 1927,” he said, “we imported into New Zealand 48. million gallons of motor spirit, in 1928 we imported 54-j million gallons, and in 1329 this Tosq to 62J million gallons. For the first 11 months of 1930 our imports were 62} million gallons; and, if we can produce for ourselves any appreciable fraction of this huge quantity it will be surely worth doing. ,i ,i i ■ .

“It does not require much imagination to see that our efficient and well organised coal gas industry is favourably situated for trying out the possibilities, for not only has that industry, at 'command a choice of coals, an abundance pf coal distillation products, cheap heating power and facilities for erecting .tfjal plant, but above all it has highly-skiliect gas engineers and trained chemists.’/' . From time to time, Mr. Glendinning said, well-meaning people urged the Government to establish some new industry in New Zealand, but that was the wrphg way of setting to work. Successful new industries in the past had been, more often than not, developments of existing industries, and, if the industrialist made it his business.to do the developing himself there was far greater probability of success than by starting an industry de novo.

A new industry was essentially an experiment, and if in spite of Government assistance it did not make good within a reasonable time, it might become a permanent burden on the community. Especially was that the case where thp finished product was the raw material of another industry, because the cost of helping the first became a fixed charge on the second, thereby, handicapping the development of -what might be the more valuable industry. . ■Mr. Glendinning said that in America much capital has been sunk in the manu-facture-of alcohol from wood waste, but generally speaking.it had not been made at a competitive price owing to the cost of handling and transporting the raw material, the costly nature of the manufacturing process and the limited amount of available cellulose in the wood. Enormous quantities of industrial alcohol were produced in Germany from potato spirit, and it had been urged that suih an industry would flourish in this country. Doubtless it would be an agricultural asset, but it was difficult to prophesy success without actual experience. The quantity of alcohol imported, into New Zealand under the head of spirits of wine was about *200,000 gallons annually.