MOTOR FUEL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19437, 24 October 1925, Page 19 (Supplement)

MOTOR FUEL

SOME POSSIBLE SOURCES 1 Our knowledge of the sources of the production of alcohol in quantities sufficient to make it interesting to speculate upon the possibilities of ultimately producing within the Empire a spirit which can be used for motor fuel, as a promoting solvent in the manufacture of high explosives and in the production of poison gases, is growing. From the Royal Botanic Gardens at Hew (London) there has just been issued a bulletin which contains a review of these sources—a welcome publication, becteuse many were fearing that interest in the subject had waned and research had diminished. The chief useful sources are fruits, wood, coffee, artichokes, sweet potatoes, and molasses. Among fruits the prickly pear is available to the extent of millions of acres in Queensland and New South Wales, hut it is necessary for profitftble distillation for the fruit to be conveniently obtainable in quantities of not less than 30 tons to an acre; this weight would produce 100 gallons of spirit. From 1000 kilos of coffee pulp 127 litres of alcohol can be distilled, while 100 kilos of acorns will give from 81 to 20J litres. In South Africa the intensive cultivation of the sweet potatoes is advised, a possible yield being from six to seven tons an acre, affording 35 gallons of alcohol to the ton. A ton of sugar will yield 40 gallons of molasses, from which 16 gallons of alcohol of the first quality can be obtained. . From western larch no fewer than 35 gallons to the ton of dry wood is yielded —almost 10 gallons a ton more than the yield obtained from any other wood.