RED ALDER OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 
17 
moisture in the material and of differences in the weight of unit 
volumes can be expressed. In Table 7 the yields are shown in com- 
mercial units, gallons of 82 per cent crude wood alcohol and pounds 
of SO per cent gray acetate of lime per cord of air-dry wood. 
Table 6. 
-Yields of alcohol and acetic- acid in percentages of oven-dry weight of 
material 
Species 
Acetic acid 
Wood al- 
cohol (100 
per cent) 
Per cent 
4.60 
5.87 
6.80 
5.26 
Per cent 
1.91 
1.87 
1.50 
Sugar maple 
1.93 
Table 7. — Yields of commercial alcohol and acetate per cord of air-dry wood 
Species 
Weight per 
cord (15 
per cent 
moisture) 
Wood al- 
cohol (82 
per cent) 
Acetate of 
lime (80 
per cent) 
Pounds 
Eed alder 2,550 
Beech 3,785 
Sweet birch 3,600 
Sugar maple 3,875 
Gallons 
7.6 
11.4 
8.6 
11.7 
Pounds 
168 
318 
351 
293 
It will be noted that the acetic-acid yield of red alder, expressed 
in percentage of oven-dry weight of wood, is considerably lower 
than any of the other three commercial species, and that the alcohol 
yield is practically the same as sugar maple and beech and higher 
than sweet birch. 
On the basis of the cord, the comparison is not so favorable, for 
the reason that red alder is comparatively light in weight and the 
wood substance in a cord is therefore much less than for the standard 
distillation woods. The alcohol yield on this basis is lower than 
that of sweet birch, although birch is the poorest of the three 
standard species for alcohol production. In yields of acetate of 
lime red alder makes an even poorer showing, giving only a little 
over half the average yield of the eastern species. 
The yields of alcohol obtained in the laboratory retort are very 
nearly the same as those obtained in commercial practice. Acetate 
of lime yields in the laboratory, however, are about 60 per cent 
greater than commercial yields. The commercial yield of red alder 
would, therefore, be about 105 pounds per cord. Commercial plants 
in the East obtain 160 to 210 pounds of acetate of lime per cord ? 
depending on the species and the efficiency of the process. The low 
yields given by red alder indicate that it can not be used for dis- 
tillation in direct competition with eastern hardwoods. 
Furthermore, the destructive distillation of hardwood for the 
manufacture of charcoal, wood alcohol, and acetate of lime is a 
highly technical industry requiring rather expensive equipment. 
Raw material sufficient to insure 15 to 20 years of life to a plant 
103296°— 26 3 
