Abstract
THE suggestion has recently been made that as much food might be obtained per acre of woodland as per acre of arable land, if the wood be so treated as to yield sugar. The production of sugairfrom wood has been a subject of much research, especially in Germany and the United States. There isno doubt that it can be achieved, not only on a small laboratory scale but also in commercial plant operation; the difficulties that have had to be overcome have been those of chemical engineering rather than of chemical reactions. There is, however, a very real doubt whether such a process isjustifiable, save perhaps in time of national emergency (for which purpose it was developed in Germany during the Great War), or whether it can ever be economically a sound proposition.
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N., A. Food from Wood. Nature 137, 688–689 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137688a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137688a0