Celtic Renewables in Scotland has found a way to turn whiskey distillation scarits into car fuel.
A Scottish company created car fuel by recycling the by-products of whiskey production.
Did you know that only 10% of what comes out of a typical distillery is whiskey? The remaining 90% are mostly organic by-products, expensive to dispose of.
Global biotech company Celtic Renewables, headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, has found an innovative way to make garbage a valuable resource by developing a process to transform organic waste into low-carbon chemicals and biofuels, making the more sustainable whiskey industry and helping to grow Scotland's green economy.
Professor Martin Tangney OBE, founder and president of Celtic Renewables, explains how the process works and how industries around the world can benefit from it:
Whiskey production involves only three simple ingredients: barley, yeast and water. Water is used to extract sugar from barley, then yeast is added to ferment this sugary water into an alcohol. Finally, the alcohol is distilled and left to mature in oak barrels until it develops the wonderful and precious flavors of the whiskey.
It sounds simple enough, but at the end of the process, distilleries are left with large quantities of two by-products: draft beer and pot ale. Beer is the leftover barley left after the sugar is extracted and pot ale is the broth left in the still after the alcohol has been distilled.
These residues are produced in large volumes and their disposal can be very expensive; so the company has found a way in which these biological materials can be transformed into something of value. How? Thanks to the ABE fermentation.
The acetol-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation process was first developed in the UK during World War I. It was one of the largest organic industries in the world until the 60s, when it was overtaken by the rapidly expanding petrochemical industry.
In 2007, Professor Martin Tangney created the Biofuel Research Center at Napier University in Edinburgh to study how ABE fermentation can be used to create sustainable biofuels from organic whiskey residues.
Thanks to our intensive research and development, we have been able to develop the patented low carbon technology that is now at the heart of Celtic Renewables' operations.
In essence, this technology allows you to combine low-value raw materials such as draft beer and pot ale to create a new raw material, from which high-value, low-carbon products can be extracted, namely acetone, butanol and ethanol. . These biochemicals play an important role in our daily life and are used in many sectors, from food and cosmetics to pharmaceuticals and hygiene products.
In fact, this technology can be applied to the food industry, agriculture and any other industry that produces organic waste, contributing to the growth of a far-reaching circular economy.
Professor Tangne explains:
We envision a new innovative bioeconomy for Scotland and the development of large biorefineries around the world that reduce waste by creating business opportunities. This is how Celtic Renewables is helping Scotland - and the world - move towards a sustainable, low-carbon, circular economy.
Regarding COP26:
I hope it gets a lot. I hope it helps us get to net zero emissions. I hope we achieve all the goals. This has to be the COP where we stop talking about why we need to tackle climate change and create a strategy.
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