Chemical encyclopaedia : a digest of chemistry and its industrial applications / by C.T. Kingzett.

  • Charles Thomas Kingzett
Date:
1932
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chemical encyclopaedia : a digest of chemistry and its industrial applications / by C.T. Kingzett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    33/1028 page 21
    ALCOHOLS (Continued)— {Ind. Eng. Chem., 1930, 22, 1037), Frolich and Cryder {Ibid., 1051), and H. S. Taylor {Chem. and Ind., 1931, 50, 317). On the one hand, it has been stated that it can be used satisfactorily alone or in admixture as a fuel, provided it can be produced cheap enough, but according to W. R. Ormandy it is ruled out as a motor fuel because it will not stand a high compression and as its heat value is less than one-half that of petrol. (See C.T.J., 1928, 83, 570; and Brown and Galloway, B.C.A., 1930, B, 359.) (See “Synthol.”) It is a limpid, colourless, volatile liquid of b.p. 67° C., sp. gr. 07851; burns with a non-luminous flame, and is a solvent of fats, oils, aniline dyes, formaldehyde, perfumes, etc. It is soluble in water, and is used commercially in the synthesis of dyestuffs, in making formal- dehyde, spirit varnishes, polishes, and for methylating spirits of wine. Upon oxidation it yields formaldehyde (CH20), and finally formic acid (CH202). (See Methylated Spirit.) Ethyl Alcohol (Absolute Alcohol, Ethanol, Ordinary Alcohol, Spirits of Wine, or Grain Spirit) (C2H5OH or C2H60)—Pure alcohol is a limpid, colourless, volatile, inflammable liquid of sp. gr. 0-8063 at 0/40 C., and b.p. of 78-4° C. at 760 mm. pressure. By oxidation, it is converted into acetaldehyde (C2H40), and finally acetic acid (C2H402). It is the product of the fermentation of sugar (glucose), and the intoxi- cating principle of wines, beers, and spirits (gin, whisky, brandy, and rum). The physical properties of absolute alcohol-have been examined by Barbaudy and Lalande {B.C.A., 1930, A, 1356). Alcohol is prepared commercially from the starches of cereals or potatoes and from sugar and molasses by processes of fermentation. Ten tons of potatoes with a starch content of 37 cwts. will yield on average 255 gallons alcohol, while a corresponding weight of grain yields 670 gallons. Indian ghur molasses yields from 78-5 to 85 per cent, alcohol, while the real sugar in the molasses should give from 95-5 to 99-2 per cent., the low yield being due, according to Gupta and Watson, to the presence of a gum resistant to acid hydrolysis which yields mucic acid. The production of industrial alcohol from molasses, as carried out by the Solvent Products, Ltd., using pure yeast cultures, is de- scribed in the hid. Chem., iv., 141. (See Eyre’s lecture referred to under Fermentations and Molasses.) It can also be produced from the waste sulphite liquors of paper- pulp mills containing carbohydrates. The starches are first converted into maltose by the action of malt, or otherwise, the extract or “ wort ” being then subjected to fermentation as in brewing, and subsequently distilled in order to obtain the alcohol thus produced. (See Paper.) In the Philippine Islands and North Borneo, alcohol is made on a commercial scale from the sap of the Nipa palm, although the produc- tion of sugar from that source was, until recently, only in the experi- mental stage, and the alcohol equivalent ” of the juice is said to be 10 09 per cent.
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