In what is claimed to be a world first, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire has linked up with a spin-out company from Napier University in Edinburgh. They plan to use bacteria to feed on the by-products from the whisky making process to produce butanol which can be used to fuel vehicles. More than 90% of the output that comes out of a whisky distillery is not whisky. It is by-product like draff and pot ales – both produced in the early stages of the process. They are high in sugar and are currently used for things like fertiliser and cattle feed.
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, will initially focus on Scotland’s £4bn malt whisky industry to develop biobutanol and other chemicals. The company said biobutanol could be used as a direct substitute for fossil-derived fuel. It said the process also had “huge global potential” to be adapted to other biological by-products. The company aims to build a processing plant in Scotland that will help grow a projected £60million-a-year industry.
The project has the support of ministers who believe it can contribute to the Scottish Government’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 42% by 2020 as well as contributing to the EU mandated biofuel target of 10% by 2020.
Douglas Ross, the managing director of Tullibardine, which spends £250,000 disposing of its by-products every year, said: “We are delighted to be partnering Celtic Renewables in this innovative venture, the obvious benefits of which are environmental. It takes a cost to us and turns it into something that has social as well as commercial value.”
