ETHYL ALCOHOL FROM WOOD WASTE. 9 



de l'Ardeche, and built an experimental plant at d'Aubervilliers, in 

 which he planned to determine the most suitable forms of apparatus. 

 After some time the company interested M. Andre Bernhard, of 

 Lille, one of the largest distillers in France. The capital stock of the 

 company was materially increased, M. Bernhard became manager 

 and director, and the company decided to increase the capacity of 

 the old plant and erect a still larger one in the Vosges. The chemists 

 of the company were meanwhile perfecting a process whereby the 

 acetic acid formed during the cooking c>f the wood with the sulphurous 

 acid could be recovered along with the major part of the sulphurous 

 acid. In addition, a special type of digester known as a "saccarafl- 

 cateur" 22 was developed. This consisted of a steel cylinder 2\ 

 meters in internal diameter by 2J meters long, through which were 

 spaced 22 tubes 160 mm. in diameter. Outside of each end of the 

 tube heads were flanged boiler-steel jackets, one to receive the live 

 steam from the boiler and the other to take off the condensed steam, 

 the heating being indirect. This type of apparatus will be discussed 

 further in connection with the plant built at Port Hadlock, Wash. 

 Instead of the sugars being extracted in diffusion batteries, water and 

 calcium carbonate were added to the digested sawdust, the whole 

 mass was fermented directly, and afterwards was distilled in the 

 usual type of beer still. Higher yields were claimed for this method 

 than for the extraction method. This plant operated intermittently 

 for a time, a number of runs being made in 1908 on American woods, 

 primarily for the purpose of interesting American capital; but appar- 

 ently no continued commercial operation resulted on French material. 

 In 1903, Classen sold the patent rights for America to the Classen 

 Lignum Co. of Chicago, a corporation organized under the laws of 

 the State of New Jersey. This company erected an experimental 

 plant at Highland Park, Chicago, which had a capacity of about 2 

 tons of dry sawdust a day of 24 hours. Later the company erected a 

 plant at Hattiesburg, Miss., at a cost of about $250,000, to operate 

 on sawmill waste of longleaf pine. A number of mechanical and 

 technical reasons for the failure of this plant have been outlined by 

 Ruttan. 23 The disadvantages of this process were as follows: (1) 

 The great length of time (from 4 to 6 hours) necessary to convert from 

 \\ to 2 tons of wood; (2) the large quantity of acid required; (3) the 

 prolonged action of so much acid and water in the rotating digester 

 reduced the wood to a very fine powder and formed much sulphuric 

 acid, which, acting on the sugars and other substances present, pro- 

 duced gums and caramels and made the complete extraction of the 

 sugars from the residue very tedious and expensive; (4) the digester 

 was lead lined, and the repair of the buckling and breaking of the 



22 This apparatus is described in detail in French Patent No. 35S696. 

 *» Jour, of Che Soc. of Chem. Ind. 1909, 1290. 



