lo Feb., 1911-] Alcohol for Motive Pozt'er. 95 



market for large quantities of material in years of heavy production, the 

 manufactured article being capable of storage for any length of time. 

 Gluts on the market would be avoided to a large extent by the use of sur- 

 plus material, and, at the same time, power would \y^ provided for agri- 

 cultural work. 



In the manufacture of alcohol there is no waste of plant food, for the 

 spirit is obtained from starch or sugar, both of which are built up in the 

 plant organism from water and carbon dioxide which is taken from the 

 air. The nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, &c., of the original plant re- 

 main in the residue after distillation and as this residue is used as a cattle 

 food or is applied to the land as manure, the valuable constituents toi 

 plant growth are to a large extent returned to the soil. 



The process by which alcohol is produced from starchy materials de- 

 pends on the facts : — 



(i.) That starch mav be converted into a sugar called maltose by the 

 action of an enzyme named diastase found in malted barley. 



(2.) That this sugar is not itself fermentable but is trans- 

 formed into a directly fermentable sugar by an enzyme, present in the 

 yeast that brings about fr-rmentation of the sugar produced by its con- 

 tained enzyme. 



(3.) That the result of the action of the yeast on the fermentable 

 sugar is that alcohol, a liquid of relatively low boiling point, is pro- 

 duced and can be recovered by distillation. 

 It has already been stated that in Germany 8o,oco,ooo gallons ot 

 alcohol were produced from potatoes in the course ot one year. In Vic- 

 toria there are harvested annually many hundreds of tons of potatoes which, 

 though not suitable for human consumi)tion because they are badly affected 

 with various diseases, are suitable material for the production of alcohol ; 

 no use, however, is made of them at present for the above purpo^^e. 



Distillation. 



There are many forms of distilling apparatus in use in Germany, bui 

 the usual type of continuously working column apparatus is the one genei- 

 ally employed. If the alcohol is to be used for special purposes it must 

 undergo further rectification and purification to rid it of fusel oils and 

 water. This is accomplished by means of fractional distillation in special 

 forms of apparatus. 



A descri]jtion of the special ferments, the apparatus used, i.nd the 

 fnethod of production, are to be found in Brachvogel's Industrial Alcohol. 

 This book should be read by all who are interested in \h>- ni;inul.i(iuri-- 

 of alcohol from farm products. 



Denatl RING. 



For industrial u.se alcohol must be denatured, that is, made uiuit toi 

 human consunifition .so that only a low rate of duty may be levied upon 

 it. This denaturing also prevents it ix'ing used for those purposes for 

 which a high rate of duty is impo.sed. 



The agents generally used in America for denaturing alcohol are methyl 

 alcohol (wo<jd-naphtha) and U-nzine. In Germany, besides methyl alcohol, 

 pyridine ba.ses are used, wiiile in Fngland kerosene is employed in con- 

 junction with the wood-napluha. For special manufacturing processes 

 when» the ordinarv denaturants are found to be objectionable, special de- 

 Jiaturaiits are ;dlowed bv law. hut the denaturing must be efl'ective. 



