Official News page 4

REAL LIFE NEWS: FROM WHISKY TO BIOFUEL

by Hazed

When I read the headline " Edinburgh start-up to make whisky biofuel" my first thought was that it would be a terrible waste of booze.

Then I read the article and discovered that actually, the plan is to turn whisky by-products, not the drink itself, into biofuel. Phew!

They are looking at the two main by-products from whiskey production: 'pot ale' which is the residue left in copper stills, and 'draff', the spent grain. The whisky industry in Scotland produces 1,600 million liters of pot ale and 500,000 of draff each year. That's a lot of waste. Turning it into biobutanol will provide a fuel which - unlike ethanol - can run in ordinary petrol engines, as well as being blended with diesel and biodiesel.

A new company, Celtic Renewables Ltd, has been formed by Edinburgh Napier University to commercialize the process of converting this waste into fuel. It has received a grant from Scottish Enterprise to assist them in scaling up their technology to commercial levels.

I wonder if the finished product will smell as nice as whisky?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-16701335

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