From Whiskey to Biofuel – Find Out How Celtic Renewables Made the Jump!

Thought that drinking and driving can’t possibly go hand in hand? You’re absolutely right. Unless of course you’re Martin Tangney and his team of scientists. Armed with the industrial power of his Edinburgh based start-up, Tangney has completely reimagined the relationship between the two words. 

Whisky to biofuel in the liquor’s country of origin!

Developed by forward thinking Scottish bio-butonal company Celtic Renewables, the in-house team has come up with a way of creating fuel using the bio-waste from whisky distilleries. Known as ‘bio-butonal’ the fuel can then be used to turn the wheels of cars, with zero engine adjustments.  Tangney reveals that “This whole concept was born out of a notion I had one day as a professor at university.” Inspired by explosive manufacturing techniques used during WW1 and the feat of US scientist David Ramey who drove 10,000 miles in a butanol powered vehicle, Tangney started to toy with the idea of butanol as a modern day form of fuel.

It soon turned into a serious project, with Tangney explaining that it has since been tested with a variety of different drops. “We tried it with Highland whiskies, Lowland whiskies, even triple-distilled whiskies, so that we would have a process that was generic and applicable not just to Scottish malt whisky, but to grain whisky, and to the rye whisky that you have in Canada. There are big whisky industries all over the world.”

Whisky waste no longer considered worthless

Amazingly, whisky makes up just 10% of the final output of the distilling process. The rest is discarded as residual waste with no apparent use. “You take barley -- malt it, and you release some sugars. You wash out the sugar from the barley, you add some yeast and water and make beer, and then distil the alcohol out of the beer,” explains Tangney. In Scotland alone this amounts to a huge 750,000 tonnes a year… Until now!

Tangney’s initial idea has since grown into an innovative project carried out by Celtic Renewables. During the process leftover barley roughage is mixed with waste beer fermentation and whisky distillation slurry, then blended with a concoction of fermentation organisms. The result is organic butanol and Tangney is urging whisky companies across the globe to get involved!

“When we build our first demonstrator we will invite all the whisky industries from all around the world to come and have a look at what we can do, and hopefully export that technology around the world,” he says.

So will whisky waste power the cars of tomorrow? Only time will tell. In the meantime, it’s a great excuse for people to drink up in the name of eco-friendly energy!

From whiskey to algae

What could be stranger than whiskey as a source of biofuel? Algae, of course! The latest research from a Wageningen University student has indicated that algae could be the world’s next super biofuel, with the capacity to turn carbon dioxide into energy derived from organic matter. Carried out by Dutch student René Wijffels, the experiment’s goal is to slash the cost and energy consumption rates of algae biodiesel production. For more information, read this story: Algae - Nothing But Trouble or the Next Super Biofuel?