The Royal Army of Scotland

[The Dark]

Originally Posted by cawest

i was thinking more along the lines of wood alcohol not grain (i don't know how a highlander would react to poring his pride and joy in a rust filled gas tank) Can you make alcohol out of seaweed or fresh water plants?

Wood alcohol is methanol (rather than ethanol), which requires different fittings since it will corrode aluminum. It's also hygroscopic, so it has to be kept in sealed containers or else it will absorb atmospheric water. It's certainly possible to use, but it's a major pain to do so if you're not already set up for it.

Seaweed has most of its sugars in the form of alginate. Up until 2012, alginate couldn't be converted to alcohol (a gene-modified E. coli bacterium was developed that year). If it could be used, it would yield around 1500 gallons (5680 liters) per acre dedicated to seaweed farming.

[cawest]

Originally Posted by The Dark

Wood alcohol is methanol (rather than ethanol), which requires different fittings since it will corrode aluminum. It's also hygroscopic, so it has to be kept in sealed containers or else it will absorb atmospheric water. It's certainly possible to use, but it's a major pain to do so if you're not already set up for it.

Seaweed has most of its sugars in the form of alginate. Up until 2012, alginate couldn't be converted to alcohol (a gene-modified E. coli bacterium was developed that year). If it could be used, it would yield around 1500 gallons (5680 liters) per acre dedicated to seaweed farming.

Yes but would they need 300,000L worth of strong drinks? it might be worth it to modify enough to supply there needs and trade the rest. the South Africa book has them converting two local distillery into a fuel supply.

[The Dark]

Originally Posted by cawest

Yes but would they need 300,000L worth of strong drinks? it might be worth it to modify enough to supply there needs and trade the rest. the South Africa book has them converting two local distillery into a fuel supply.

By the mid-90s, the per-capita consumption of alcohol in Scotland was around 9L, and the SGUK mentions that pubs are basically the only entertainment left. If it increased even modestly to 10L, then the output of that sort of micro-distillery would supply 30,000 people or about 275,000L of fuel (fuel has to be at a higher alcohol content than drink). However, spirits only make up about 30% of Scotland's alcohol consumption (about 20% was wine, and the other half beer), so assuming appropriate amounts of beer could still be made, it would be closer to 100,000 people for such a distillery.

Honestly, converting some distilleries over to fuel production if the excess cereals are available would make sense, due to Scotland's export of spirits. I know there's at least one distillery with 30,000,000L annual capacity, which could produce millions of liters of fuel if adequately supplied; since distilling provides higher alcohol content than brewing, it's easier to convert a distillery to fuel production and let the brewery focus on products for human consumption.