256  Glycerin  from  Sugar.  {^'"-  Xri^^,^^ro. 
PRODUCTION  OF  GLYCERIN  FROM  SUGAR.* 
(Prepared  by  the  Research  Division,  Bureau  of  Foreign  and  Domestic  Com- 
merce.) 
At  the  beginning  of  the  war  Germany  was  "swimming  in  sugar," 
to  use  an  expression  of  the  Frankfurter  Zeitung  (May  22,  191 5). 
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  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  of  the 
1913-14  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large  quantities  of  sugar  that  had  been  withdrawn  from  human 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  pur- 
poses. The  process  of  production  is  described  by  Dr.  W.  Con- 
stein  and  Dr.  K.  Ludecke  in  Die  Naturwissenschaften  (1909,  p.  403). 
Process  of  Production. — The  consumption  of  glycerin  in  the 
manufacture  of  cosmetics  and  for  other  purposes,  chiefly  in  the 
manufacture  of  explosives,  increased  enormously  during  the  war, 
while  the  supply  of  the  raw  materials — fats — was  constantly  dim- 
inishing. 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  has  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  alkalies  to  the  liquid  in  fer- 
mentation the  production  of  glycerin  was  increased.  It  was  found 
that  almost  any  salt  with  an  alkaline  reaction  could  be  used  for 
that  purpose.  Experiments  were  made  with  acetate,  bicarbonate, 
and  dibasic  phosphate  of  sodium  and  with  carbonate  of  ammonia. 
*  Commerce  Reports,  Feb.  3,  1920. 
