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AUSTRALIA’S POSITION IN REGARD TO LIQUID FUEL. 
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appear that high yields will be obtained from our hardwoods, but the 
investigation is one which the Institute intends to take up as soon as 
facilities are provided for the work. The manufacture of calcium 
carbide has recently been established in Tasmania, but the development 
of the industry depends largely upon the availability of cheap power. 
The recovery of ethylene from coke ovens and coal gas, and its conversion 
into alcohol, are still in the experimental stages. At the present time, 
however, none of these three sources of supply is of appreciable 
importance in this country. 
The main recommendations made to the Government in a compre- 
hensive report on the whole subject, in 1918, were— 
(1) That a bonus of 6d. per gallon should be eranted on power- 
aleohol distilled in Australia from local raw materials; and 
(2) That the whole question of methylation of denaturation should 
be reviewed sympathetically by the Excise authorities. 
The Government has not, so far, taken any action in these directions, 
but the Institute is hopeful that some results may soon be forthcoming. 
In Queensland there are very considerable supplies of material which 
are now wasted, and which can be used profitably for the manufacture of 
power-alcohol. As the result of action taken by the Institute, the 
Automobile Club of Queensland has established a strong and influential 
committee to see what can be done to establish distilleries, preferably 
on a co-operative basis. Interest is being aroused also in other direc- 
tions, and the sugar mills in the Cairns district are, for example, taking 
the matter up with a view to ascertaining the possibilities of estab- 
lishing a distillery to produce about 1,000,000 gallons annually. As 
regards other raw materials, the difficulty at the present time is that 
crops which contain either sugar or starch have such a high yalue as 
foodstuffs that it is doubtful whether they can be used profitably for 
distillation purposes. , : > 
The Fuel Research Board in Great Britain is of opinion that coal is 
now, and is likely to remain, the world’s principal source of fuel, whether 
solid, liquid, or gaseous.. By processes of carbonization and gasification, 
coal can be “ sorted out” into gaseous, liquid, and solid fuels, and more 
economic methods of utilization adopted. Investigations carried “out 
by the Fuel Research Board into the thermal and economic effect of 
various methods for carbonizing and gasifying different types of coal 
show that for each type of coal the method of treatment has to be 
specially adapted. Since the solution of the problem depends, not 
only on the nature of the coals and particular processes suitable for 
their treatment, but also on economic conditions, it is highly important 
that Australia should take part in the investigations which are being 
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