SUSE ee CW Vs AG RB Vel Br NV, 31 
PRODUCTION OF GLYCERIN FROM SUGAR 
[Prepared by the Research Division, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. | 
At. the beginning of the war Germany was “swimming in sugar,’ to use an ex- 
pression of the Frankfurter Zeitung (May 22, 1915.) Production had been greater 
than ever; large quantities left from the previous campaigns were still available; 
exportation had stopped. One of the 10 “war commandments,’ proclaimed on bills 
posted in all railway stations, advised the people: “Use plenty of sugar with your 
meals; sugar is an excellent food.” Certain measures of the Government, however, 
soon made it impossible for the people to follow that advice, and sugar became scarce 
in the market, although it was known that stocks were plentiful, for the production 
ef the 1913-1914 campaign had yielded 2,715,870 metric tons of sugar. Germany had 
been -the leading sugar-producing country of Europe, and yet the people suffered from 
scarcity of sugar during the war and were compelled to use honey and saccharin as 
substitutes. It was supposed that owing to the shortage of fats the Government was 
trying to conserve the stocks of sugar. It now appears that large quantities of sugar 
that had been withdrawn from human consumption were used in the manufacture of 
glycerin for war purposes. The process of production is described by Dr. W. Conn- 
stein and Dr. K. Ludecke in Die Naturiissenschaften. 
The consumption of glycerin in the manufacture of cosmetics and for other pur- 
poses, chiefly in the manufacture of explosives, increased enormously during the war, 
while the supply of the raw materials—fats—was constantly diminishing. It was 
therefore necessary to seek other sources, and sugar was selected, as its chemical 
structure is somewhat similar to that of glycerin. The transformation of sugar into 
glycerin was accomplished by the biochemical method. It had been known for a long 
time that in the ordinary fermentation of sugar with yeast small quantities of glycerin 
would be produced, amounting to about 3 per cent. of the sugar. By adding alkalis to 
the liquid in fermentation the production of glycerin was increased. It was found 
that almost any salt with an alkaline reaction could be used for that purpose. Ex- 
periments were made with acetate, bicarbonate, and dibasic phosphate of sodium and 
with carbonate of ammonia. The yield of glycerin was increased to 12.7 per cent., 
but the alkaline mash was found to be an excellent breeding place for all kinds of 
acid-forming bacteria, which would pollute the glycerin. This fault was remedied 
by the use of sodium sulphite, which acts as a poison to the bacteria of lactic acid 
and others, but does not, even in large quantities, affect the yeast cells (Saccharomy- 
ces). When sodium sulphite was employed as an antiseptic the yield of glycerin was 
increased proportionately to as much as 23 to 36.7 per cent. of the sugar. 
The ordinary fermentation produces not only alcohol, carbonic acid, and glycerin, 
but also small quantities of acetaldehyde. When the sulphite is added in increasing 
quantities the yield of acetaldehyde and glycerin increases, while that of alcohol and 
carbonic acid decreases. The acetaldehyde was used largely for war purposes. The 
production of glycerin from sugar had a great practical value in war time, according 
to German writers. The manufacturing process, patented in 1915, was exploited on a 
large scale, and the production of glycerin exceeded 2,200,000 pounds a month, The 
invention also possesses an unusual theoretical interest as it shows how the trans- 
formation of materials by bacteria can be influenced by the addition of chemicals. 
In the words of a German writer (Prometheus, Nov. 1, 1919), “the biochemical pro- 
cesses open up new prospects for the future and seem to be destined to provide many 
substitutes to a people robbed of all raw materials.” 
Attempts made during the war in Austria-Hungary to produce glycerin from 
Sugar do not seem to have met the success claimed for similar attempts in Germany. 
Complaint was made by the Bohemian journals of Prague that carloads of sugar had 
been wasted in recovering negligible quantities of glycerin, and doubts were expressed 
whether such waste of food could be justified even by the exigencies of war. 
