Scottish whiskey has been world-famous for centuries, and now it is being developed for something quite different: biofuel for vehicles and aircraft. The Biofuel Research Center at Edinburgh Napier University is developing a product that could exploit Scotland's huge malt whiskey industry to benefit Mother Earth.
Professor Martin Tangney is leading the research. It could one way make whiskey a "next generation biofuel."
The process from converting by-products of whisky into fuel is fairly basic. "Draft" (by-product of malt after brewing) and "pot ale (by-product after distillation) are blended and fermented to produce a "broth," according to Yahoo.
The fermentation produces gases, and the broth is distilled to make three primary products. Researchers are excited about one of the main products made from the process: butanol.
In fact, butanol has almost the same amount of energy as petrol does. In other words, you could basically travel the same distance on a liter of butanol and petrol!
Butanol has several benefits, such as being mixed with diesel and biodiesel. There is also a chance that butanol will be used for jet planes, rather than vehicles.
The process that Celtic Renewables is using is a version of a century-old process for fermentation. In fact, other raw materials can be used to create biofuels.
Whisky could one day be used to produce biofuel that fills hundreds of millions of liters. Celtic Renewables hopes to be operating its first Scottish production plant in 2016.
In fact, it hopes to expand its production of whiskey-based biofuels to other countries, according to BBC. This is in part due to the expanding whiskey industry.
