The Maui news. [volume] (Wailuku, Maui, H.I.) 1900-current, 1921-08-05
FUEL ALCOHOL
EXPECTED TO
REPLACE WOOD
Experiments With Oil Stoves
by M. A. Company Indicate
Fuel Problem Is Solved.
Plant Is Enlarged.

One Of the most important develop
ments in the use of fuel alcohol made
from molasses is now in progress at
Paia by Maui Agricultural Company.
For the past several years the COM
pany has been manufacturing its own
motor fuel and now it is planned to
use the fuel for domestic cooking pur-
poses in the homes of the plantation
employees The experiments made
indicate that the plan will be a sue
cess, and the alcohol plant of the
company was recently increased to a
1500-gallon capacity from 400.
1t has been the custom of the plan
tations of the Islands to furnish wood
for fuel to employees. That was eco
nomical enough when land was being
cleared, but since then the cost of
wood has steadily mounted so that
the supply of it has become a puZzling
problem for plantation managements.
On two plantations on Oahu and most
of the Kauai plantations the en-
ployees have been furnished oil
stoves and are supplied with kero-
sene instead of of wood. The M. A.
Company believes it may be possible
to furnish fuel alcohol more cheaply.
Use Ordinary Stoves
Experiments have been conducted
in use of the fuel in ordinary oil
stoves using fabric wicks, asbestos
wicks and grassifying burners, and
such experiments have been highly
satisfactory. Less ether is put into
the fuel than was used in the manu-
facture of motor fuel formerly, with
the result that the unpleasant odor
from combustion has been eliminated.
In the vapor stoves the problem of
eliminating the odor did not arise.
J. p. Foster mill superintendent at
Paia, told Maui News of what the
company is doing. 1t has been de-
cided to cease furnishing wood, and
shipment of $50 oil stoves came in
on the Manoa Friday last Mr.. Foster
is sanguine that alcohol fuel will be
the answer for Paia and Haiku plan
tations. If so, it may be that other
Maui plantations will follow the ex-
ample and put in their distllling
plants.
1t has been found, Mr.. Foster says,
that the fuel will work instead of oil
with the ordinary oil stoves no mat
ter whether wick be fabric or ashes
tos. The amount of ether used has
been reduced to percent and when
the stoves were tried out there was
no disagreeable odor noted. There is
also a Classifying burner which can
be put on the ordinary stove or con-
crete ranges used in the laborers'
quarters or on anothef-steve or a
wood range, which works still better
than the wick stoves.
New Plant Installed
In the plant at Paia there has been
installed a new type of still designed
by Mr.. Foster and A. F. Misener, the
distiller for the company. 1t was
made by the merchandise department
of the Kahului Railroad and that com
pany is ready to supply other planta.
tions, the cost being only about a
third of the standard STILL
The old style standard stills were
designed to preserve the odor and
flavor or to produce an odorless and
flavorless alcohol. For fuel that is
unimportant to do so reduces com
bustible qualities, and high com,
butsible is what is needed in the fuel
Production Costs Lowered
While the output of the new plant
is between three and four times that
of the old, 1t requires no larger force
to operate, and as result the over.
head expenses per gallon are cut
down to third of the former over
head now it is conservatively esti
mated that the cost per gallon, eXclu
sive of the value of the molasses, is
not more than to 10 cents.
Molasses values are small this year
and degree of uncertainty exists as
to what will be realized. They are
tentatively put at IS ton f. o. b. sea
board, but the determination of the
actual payment will not come till the
end of the year. There is the cost to
transport the mOlasses to Kahului and
there are deductions which are likely
to further reduce returns. 1t may be
that 81 would be realized by its sale
A ton of molasses will produce about
55 gallons of alcohol, which makes its
cost for that purpose little less than
cents, and the approximate cost OF
the fuel, including what is lost
through non-sale and non-shipment OF
the raw material, between Is and Is
cents a gallon.
Careful Tests Made
There are being made extensive
tests as to heat units and the relative
fuel values of kerosene and the alco-
hol, the latter making a hotter blaze
but being more volatile. 1t is esti
mated that an average plantation
family would use from 10 to Is gal
Ions month, which at Paia would be
about one days output for all of the
laborers.
Other plantations are watching with
interest the Paia experiments. Some