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 qf 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 "saccarafi- 
cateur" 22 was developed. This consisted of a steel cylinder 2 \ 
meters in internal diameter by 2\ 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 
1^ 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. 358696. 
23 Jour, of the Soc. of Chem. Ind. 1909, 1290. 
