New plan to use whisky as fuel

Published on Monday 16 August 2010 12:16

EVERYONE knows drinking and driving don't mix.

But Edinburgh scientists have discovered a way of blending whisky and cars to come up with a positive, if unexpected result.

After two years' research, the Edinburgh Napier University scientists are to unveil their vision for a new era in environmentally-sustainable fuel, made from whisky by-products.

The new super biofuel could be available at the petrol pumps within the next few years to give car-owners the chance to become greener and more sustainable without the need to make any vehicle adaptations.

The unique fuel process, which creates a product called butanol from the whisky by-products, has been developed by Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh scientists focused on the 4bn whisky industry as a resource for developing butanol - which is the next generation of biofuel - as it gives 30 per cent more output than ethanol, the biofuel currently found at petrol pumps.

The process uses the two main by-products of the whisky production process - 'pot ale', which is 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.

The nature of butanol means that ordinary cars could eventually use the more powerful fuel instead of traditional petrol, making it a more sustainable way to run vehicles.

Director of the Biofuel Research Centre, Professor Martin Tangney, who is leading the ground-breaking research, said: "Oil won't last forever so we have to find alternative ways of powering vehicles.

"The most common biofuel on the forecourt at the moment is ethanol, which is sold as a blend to comply with EU regulations and the consumer is probably not even aware of it.

"However, ethanol only has 70 per cent of the energy of petrol whereas butanol is almost the same as petrol.

"It would come in as a blended technology at first but we could envisage that it could be used on its own.

"Our intention is to form a company that will partner with some of the larger companies and if we get the right partners and policy is strong to make the market acceptable for what we want to do, it could be introduced in a matter of years."

The 260,000 project was funded by Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept programme.

Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, said: "This pioneering research is testament to Scotland's world-class science base."

Enterprise, energy and tourism minister Jim Mather said: "In these challenging economic times we need to take advantage of the low carbon opportunities."