The Washington times., 1917-02-17
SAWDUST MAY TAKE
GASOLENE'S PLACE
Experiments Being Conducted
to Make True Grain Alcohol
From Substance.

MADISON, Wis, Feb. I6.-The de-
velopment Of sawdust through the
newest scientific methods. into a
true grain alcohol which can be used
as fuel for automobiles is being
worked out, according to officials of
the ForesU Products Laboratory of
the Federal Forest Service in this
city. which was q pioneer in this line
of experimenting.
Il am inclined to think, however"
said Howard F. Weiss. director of the
American laboratory, that the
Canadian Forester who prophesies
that Canadian-made alcohol will
eventually be distributed through un-
derground pipes like city gas, is a
little too enthusiastic in his views.
He is, however. on the right track in
the development of alcohol as a motor
fuel"
Big supply Available.
An enormous supply of wood waste
is available in the great valleys of
the Willow. Nechako, Buckley and
Skeena rivers in central British CO.
lumbia, where the forests have been
giving way to agriculture in part. but
where there is still limitless supply
of big timber.
This territory has recently been
opened up by the new. transconti-
mental Grand Trunk Pacific and it is
on woods taken from this region
that the experiments for the produc-
tion of alcohol have been carried on.
The wood waste is broken down by
distillation and the wood alcohoI pro-
duced. converted by simple processes
into a true grain alcohol.
Compensation.
Although the caIorific power of al
coho1 is little more than ohe-half
that of gasolene las greater efficiency
compensates for this. This higher ef-
dciency of alcohol is due to various
causes. chief among which are the
following:
THE volume of air required for
complete combustion of alcohol is
only about one-third that required by
gasolene, and thus much less energy
goes away in the exhaust Moreover,
this small dilution with air enables
a more perfect mixture TO be formed
with consequent more perfect COM
bustion.
THE alcohol-air mixture can be
safely subjected to pressures OF 200
pounds a square inch without spon-
taneous ignition, whereas the safety
limit for gasolene is eighty.
3-AIl mixtures of alcohol and air
from to 1876 per cent of
alcohol are explosive, whereas the ex-
plosive range for gasolene is from 2
to per cent, necessitating much
more careful cabureter adjustment. |
4-The combustion products OF al.
cohol are smokeless, almost odorless,
and do not clog UP the cylinders and
Only Big Difficulty.
Tho only serious difficulty encount-
cred would be the starting ofohe en-
gine in cold weather, and this could
be provided for by carrying a small
auxiliary gasolene tank to be used
In starting.
OF all the possible sources, the most
owing to the low cost OF
raw material. is the waste from the
lumber industry, particularly that in
the form OF sawdust on small ships.
This material in the vicinity of saw
mills or woodworking plants is often
an item of loss owing to its produc-
tion in excess of their own power
its value never rising
above so cents a ton, even when
used as a source OF power. The dis
posal OF this superfuous waste costs
from 30 to &c cents a cord OF 1.SOO
pounds, the total annual loss from
this cause amounting to about So
BOO, 900 annually, in addition to the
valuse of the wood so burned.
What Ton Yield
From experiments which have been
conducted a ton OF dry
sawdust has been found to yield, with