I move:—
"That with a view to the establishment of two important industries in Saorstát Eireann the Seanad suggests to the Government the desirability of allocating a grant not exceeding £2,000 to enable any approved persons, native or foreign, to carry out in Saorstát Eireann under strict supervision such trials as will demonstrate the net cost of producing crude alcohol from peat and ascertain the possibility of doing so at a price which will enable it to compete with petrol in an economic manner."
On the 14th November, 1923, the Seanad did me the honour of passing unanimously the following resolution:
That, with a view to the establishment of two important industries in Saorstát Eireann, the Seanad suggests to the Government the desirability of offering substantial prizes for—
1st—The most efficient type of internal combustion engine developing 15 b.h.p. while using crude alcohol alone as the motor spirit.
2nd.—The most suitable and economic crude alcohol for the development of power, so treated that it could not be consumed as a drink.
Both to be manufactured in Saorstát Eireann.
And that, for the purposes of this competition, temporary exemption from excise duty be granted on such alcohol to bona fide competitors.
The Government came to the conclusion, after mature deliberation, that the best way to give effect to this resolution was to appoint a committee, and the following were appointed on the 24th March, 1925:—
Senator W. Barrington, Chairman; Senator Sir Nugent Everard, Senator H.S. Guinness, Professor Hugh Ryan, W. Sears, T.D.
1. To consider and report as to whether any persons can demonstrate that it is practicable to produce in Saorstát Eireann—
(a) crude alcohol at a price and in quantity that would enable it to compete with imported spirit for power purposes;
(b) an efficient type of engine using crude alcohol that would be suitable for commercial power requirements.
2. To recommend to the Minister the grant of prizes, not exceeding in total the sum of £1,500, to such persons as, in the opinion of the Committee, demonstrate that the production on the conditions above mentioned of crude alcohol, and of an efficient engine, is commercially practicable.
It is not contemplated that the Committee itself should conduct any experiments.
As to the Committee, I would like to make a few remarks taking the names alphabetically with a view to showing that any recommendation they made and any conclusion they unanimously arrived at should not be lightly set aside. Senator Sir Nugent Everard, we all know as one who has taken the liveliest interest in everything likely to do good in the country, and who has spared neither time, money nor work to forward the establishment of rural and other industries.
Senator Seymour Guinness, whose training first as an engineer, a banker, a director of railways, and now as one of the managing directors of the largest industrial concern in this country, would combine to make his judgment sound and valuable and to make him one of the least likely persons to be found recommending anything unsound or unduly speculative.
Professor Dr. Hugh Ryan, the Government chemist: as regards Professor Ryan, I should like to point out that I regard the Government of the Free State as lucky in having a man of his attainments as their State chemist to guide and advise them; with a reputation extending beyond these islands, who is a recognised authority in chemical matters and, as we have found, with an encyclopedic knowledge of all the latest chemical developments.
Ex-Deputy Sears, who was put on to represent the other House at the suggestion of one of the Ministers and who, though he has since lost his seat, has not lost his reputation for sound and sober judgment. Mr. Coffey kindly agreed to act as honorary Secretary.
The Committee had not been long sitting before it became apparent that we could safely postpone the question of suitable engines until we were in a position to provide alcohol spirit in sufficient quantities to make the construction of special engines desirable, particularly as such spirit could be used in petrol engines. Next we found that to obtain such spirit in sufficient quantities and at such a price as would enable it to compete successfully with petrol, another source of supply should be sought than crops specially raised for the purpose. It had long been known to Irish chemists and their brethren all over the world, that synthetic alcohol, or ethyl alcohol as it is technically known, was being made from many other raw materials, and that the late Professor Ramsay had obtained approximately 28 gallons of alcohol from 1 ton of air-dried Irish peat, and that such experiments were being carried on in various countries. In Sweden 22 Imperial gallons were obtained per ton of Swedish dried peat, and the cost in 1915 worked at about 6½d. per Imperial gallon.
The Committee do not in any way claim that they have discovered peat as a suitable raw material for the extraction of alcohol, but they do claim that it has been so long and so widely known to be a suitable source of supply that the fact is now incontestable and beyond argument. The question which remains for solution is what the cost of extraction amounts to. Through the advertisements the Committee inserted in the home and foreign chemical journals, a French syndicate applied to them and invited them to inspect the working of an experimental plant installed by order of the French Government to carry out the process patented by Monsieur Georges Meunier, in the Government explosives factory at Sorgues in the south of France.
We made inquiries and found that the French Government had appointed a committee composed of the foremost chemical scientists in France to investigate the Meunier process, that they approved of it, and on their recommendation the Government had installed an experimental plant, where they were investigating the cost of producing ethyl alcohol from raw materials of every description which were obtainable in sufficient quantities in France and French Africa.
Through the good offices of the Free State Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and their Agent-General in Paris, Mr. Vaughan Dempsey, permission was with some difficulty obtained from the French Ministry for War for myself, as Chairman of the Committee, to visit the explosives factory and examine the plant in operation. In appointing the Committee no provision had been made for meeting any expenses necessarily incurred by us, or I would have asked Professor Ryan to accompany me. The 18th, 19th and 20th January, 1926, I spent investigating the process. The Colonel in charge and other officials of the factory were most courteous and helpful; also Monsieur Meunier. French peat had been provided for the purpose. It seemed to me very poor stuff, somewhat like the peat we might get at the bottom of a cut-away bog with clay adhering. It was, however, put through the process, and 7 minutes after the operation commenced a serum began to flow from the worm, which became a thin wash in 8½ minutes, and was completed in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The wash was taken to the laboratory to be tested, and, related to a ton weight of peat. I was subsequently informed, yielded approximately 17 gallons alcohol, 90 per cent. strength per ton, also furfurol (synthetic resin), acetic acid, formic acid, and acetone. The peat left in in the cylinder was put into a fine strainer and the water pressed out by hand, when the residue (60 per cent. of the original weight treated) was readily formed into briquettes of far greater calorific value than the raw peat. The patentee claims that half of these briquettes supply all the heat necessary for the entire process, and that the other half are available for sale, i.e., one-third of the original weight of air-dried peat consumed.
Monsieur Meunier asked me to supply him with samples of Irish peat to enable him to compare results with the French peat. I therefore on my return saw our good friend, Sir John Griffith, Chairman of the Turraun Peat Company, who is always ready and anxious to help on any worthy project for the development of this country, and he not only supplied the necessary samples but promised, if an experimental station was established here, to supply it with the necessary peat and give a site, free of charge, for its erection.
Monsieur Meunier replied that "The yield from Turraun Peat greatly exceeds that which it is possible to obtain from the material you saw at Sorgues.""I estimate that 50 per cent. of the dry (i.e. solid) matter should be transformed into alcohol." He has supplied us with details giving the values of the various by-products produced including briquettes, and calculates that the alcohol can be sold at 8½d. a gallon, after 20 per cent. interest on the capital involved has been paid.
The Committee endeavoured to induce the French syndicate to come over and supply the necessary apparatus and run the experimental station, promising if the experiments were successful and fulfilled the promises made for them that they would recommend the grant of prizes to the value of £1,500 which was all they were empowered to do. Monsieur Meunier and his friends informed us that they had little hope in the present disturbed state of finance of being able to induce French financiers to risk the sum necessary to demonstrate the feasibility of developing their process here on a financially sound basis.
In February and March, 1926, some of them suggested the formation of a small company here with a capital of 100,000 francs (at that date representing about £750) to enable them to have the necessary appliances made, sent over here, erected and worked at the August Horse Show, to exhibit the process in operation and give samples of the alcohol for trial in motor engines.
The Committee are unanimous that the foregoing taken in connection with the attached documents represent the results so far obtained by their investigations, and they are also of opinion that enormous advantages would result to the Saorstát from the successful solution of the problem of the economic extraction of power alcohol from the vast deposits of peat which the country possesses.
The Committee are of opinion that although the information at their disposal does not indicate that the process developed by M. Meunier offers a certainty of success, they believe that having regard to the immense issues involved for the economic development of the country by opening up the sources of revenue which would result from the solution of this problem they would be wanting in their duty if they did not urge upon the Minister the desirability of authorising the experiment especially when it can be carried out for such a trifling expense as £750.
They would, therefore, recommend the Minister to amend the terms upon which the prizes already authorised might be awarded by permitting
(1) The whole of the £1,500 to be awarded for alcohol alone, as it is now established that this fuel can be used in existing internal combustion engines.
(2) That an advance of half this prize £750 might be authorised (subject to all proper safeguards) to any approved persons, native or foreign, to enable them to demonstrate the possibility of producing industrial alcohol from peat at a price which would enable it to compete with petrol in an economic manner.
Since March last the Committee have been endeavouring to get persons interested to undertake the liability of establishing the trial station here at their own expense, and there is reason to believe they would have done so but for the disorganised state of French finance. The Committee have further satisfied themselves that the whole £750 will be required to meet the necessary expenses without leaving any profit to the demonstrators, so if they were not convinced they can do what they claim they would have no inducement to attempt it.
It must be borne in mind that the essential difference between Monsieur Meunier's process and others previously tried is that he claims to produce from raw peat as a by-product sufficient fuel to provide the heat necessary for the production of the alcohol and even have a balance of such fuel for sale. In all previous experiments this heat had to be provided from extraneous sources, and the cost of the alcohol was thereby increased to a figure which rendered competition with petrol at its present price unremunerative. Whether Monsieur Meunier can do this is what it is necessary to test, as it has never been attempted as far as we are aware.
The Minister for Finance did not see his way to act on this recommendation; other things have since intervened. The franc has been stabilised, the cost of labour and materials in France has largely increased, and we have reason to believe that a sum of £1,500 to £2,000 would now be needed to have the experiment thoroughly tested, but we still believe that owing to the immense issues involved it would be well worth the State incurring this expense, especially having regard to the fact that we spend annually on foreign petrol upwards of £600,000.
The Committee are aware that most European countries are experimenting with a view to finding a suitable substitute for petrol and, like the French, spending large sums to make themselves independent of it. We are, therefore, of opinion that in a country like Ireland, so much of whose surface is composed of peat, such an investigation is specially desirable to ascertain if it is possible to turn one of our chief assets, at present unremunerative, to the most profitable account.
The Committee are also of opinion that a matter of this national importance should, in this as in other countries, be the business of the State and not be left to private enterprise to develop. This Committee had its origin in the Seanad, and we appeal to it now with confidence to add its weighty recommendation with a view to inducing the Minister for Finance, that jealous guardian of the public purse, on this occasion to relax his hold on the purse-strings and follow the lead of the Finance Ministers of other countries not so richly endowed with raw materials nor so much in the need of the establishment of new industries to support in comfort and if possible increase its present population.