THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY. PART I. 105 



It will be seen from the above table that the sap of the nipa palm 

 is the cheapest source of alcohol in the world, namely, 0.037 dollar per 

 liter of 180 proof, or 90 per cent alcohol, estimating the raw material 

 as delivered at the distillery, with cassava ^ second at 0.034 dollar. The 

 whole story, moreover, is not told by these figures. The palm saps 

 in the ordinary process of gathering and transporting to the distillery 

 ferment with great ease and rapidity. Therefore, in less than twenty 

 hours when the fermentation is complete, the liquor is ready to be 

 pumped into the stills. This factor gives to these saps a considerable 

 advantage over other raw materials which have to be prepared for 

 fermentation and distillation at the distillery. 



As a matter of fact, there is one distillery which is now producing 

 93 per cent alcohol (186 proof) at a cost of 0.10 peso Philippine cur- 

 rency (0.05 dollar United States currency) per liter with their plant 

 running twelve hours a day. On a 24-hour basis, with the introduction 

 of some additional economies, this grade of alcohol could be produced 

 at a cost between 0.070 0.075 peso (0.035 and 0.0375 dollar) per liter. 

 These figures include the overhead expense of the distillery and nipa 

 groves, that is, the cost of administration. 



Although at the present time 98.8 per cent of the total quantity of 

 alcohol produced in the Islands is consumed in the various beverages,® 

 it is evident that we have in the nipa palm a promising source of 

 industrial alcohol. Certain species of palms thus assume a commercial 

 importance in the Philippines which they do not attain in any other 

 countiy. 



The nipa palm also gives great promise of being a commercial possi- 

 bility as a source of refined sugar (sucrose). In another part of the 

 paper I shall introduce data which will serve to demonstrate this con- 

 clusion. 



Many references to the occurrence of sugar in palm saps are to be 

 found in the literature, for the natives of some tropical countries have, 

 from time immemorial, made cmde sugar from this source. 



E. 0. von Lippmann" states that the saps of many species of palms, for 

 example, Arenga saccharifera, Phoenix silvestris, Caryota urens, Borassus flabel- 

 liformis (B. flabellifer) , Cocos nucifera contain from 3 to 5 per cent sucrose. 



M. Berthelot" identified the sugar from the Java palm Saguerus rumphii 

 (Arenga saccharifera Labill.) as sucrose. 



' In the Philippines, it is probable that alcohol can be produced from cassava 

 at a lower figure than this. 



•The figures for the fiscal year 1909 are: Total production, 9,532,537 proof 

 liters; consumed as beverages, 9,423,870 proof liters; withdrawn for export, 81,995 

 proof liters; and used for industrial purposes, 26,672 proof liters; and for the 

 fiscal year 1910, 10,584,124, 10,392,422, 8,020, and 183,682 proof liters, respectively. 



"Die Chemie der Zuckerarten, Braunschweig (1895), 590. 



"AwM. d. chem. et d. ph/ys. (3) (1859), 55, 286. 



