An Edinburgh based company, Clean Renewables Ltd., has developed a new biofuel made from whisky waste products, reports Grist. Aside from serving as a new fuel source, this biofuel could help recycle the large amount of waste, including 530 million gallons of pot ale and 750,000 tons of grain.
The process behind this new biofuel was explained by The Daily Record as a manufacturing process called Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation which uses the two main byproducts of whisky production: pot ale and draff. As an added bonus, this fuel can be used as a direct replacement for petrol, without having to change the engine—an advantage other biofuels don’t have.
Production costs are high for Clean Renewables, and they were only able to perfect the process after receiving $1.6 million in funding from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change. However, the company will be entering a competition from the UK’s Department of Transportation for biofuel demonstrations and feel confident that they’ll be able to secure additional funds. [Grist][Photo: Flickr/John Haslam]