Collaboration Creates New Fuel
24 August 2010
Topping up at the petrol pumps is about to take an intriguing twist as cars are set to be fuelled with a new super biofuel made from whisky by-products.
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Edinburgh Napier University has filed a patent for the new biofuel, which can be used in ordinary cars without any special adaptions needed. The innovative fuel process has been developed over the last two years by Napier's Biofuel Research Centre.
As part of its research, the centre was provided with samples of whisky distilling by-products from Diageo's Glenkinchie Distillery. The £260,000 research project was funded by Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept programme.
The Edinburgh Napier Biofuel research team focused on the £4bn whisky industry as a ripe resource for developing biobutanol - the next generation of biofuel which gives 30% more output power than ethanol. It uses the two main by-products of the whisky production process - 'pot ale', the liquid from the copper stills, and 'draff', the spent grains, as the basis for producing the butanol that can then be used as fuel.
With 1,600 million litres of pot ale and 187,000 tonnes of draff produced by the malt whisky industry annually, there is real potential for biofuel to be available at local garage forecourts alongside traditional fuels.
Unlike ethanol, the nature of the innovative biofuel means that ordinary cars could use the more powerful fuel instead of traditional petrol. The product can also be used to make other green renewable bio-chemicals, such as acetone.
The University now plans to create a spin-out company to take the new fuel to market and leverage the commercial opportunity in a bid to make it available at petrol pumps.
Director of the Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University, Professor Martin Tangney, is leading the groundbreaking research. He said: "The EU has declared that biofuels should account for 10% of total fuel sales by 2020. We're committed to finding new, innovative renewable energy sources.
"While some energy companies are growing crops specifically to generate biofuel, we are investigating excess materials such as whisky by-products to develop them. This is a more environmentally sustainable option and potentially offers new revenue on the back of one Scotland's biggest industries.
We've worked with some of the country's leading whisky producers to develop the process."
To find out more go to Scotland Food and Drink
