SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




Scottish Start-up Company 'Sets the Bar' for Biofuels
Green Technology Featured Articles
June 18, 2013

Scottish Start-up Company 'Sets the Bar' for Biofuels

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

Although our cars cannot exactly “belly up to the bar,” they soon may be swilling down the distilled product of Scotland’s whisky industry as a new type of biofuel, according to a story posted online this week by National Geographic.


Indeed, a Scottish energy start-up is attempting to prove that cars and booze aren't necessarily a dangerous mix—as long as the hooch is poured into a fuel tank and not down a driver's throat. Edinburgh-based Celtic Renewables is resurrecting a once popular, but almost forgotten, fermentation process that it believes can turn the dregs of the nation’s £4 billion ($6 billion) whisky-making industry into millions of gallons of clean, renewable biofuel.


Image via Shutterstock

In a distillery, only 10 percent of what flows out of a still is future whiskey. What is left is something called “draff”— the residue of the grains of barley; and pot ale, a copper-laden liquid.

And therein lies the opportunity: Scotland's distillers produce 1.6 billion liters (422.7 million gallons) of pot ale and 500,000 metric tons of draff annually. Getting rid of all that leftover muck is a challenge. "They have a major disposal problem," said Martin Tangney, founder and president of Celtic Renewables.

If Celtic Renewables meets its goal of turning a "high percentage" of all that waste into biobutanol fuel, Tangney reckons he can create a £60 million ($90 million) new industry.  "One man's waste is another man's gold," he told National Geographic.

The local whiskey industry already is beating a path to Tangney’s door. Tullibardine, a distillery in Blackford, about 50 miles northwest of Edinburgh, annually produces 2 million liters (528,344 gallons) of pot ale and 6,500 metric tons of draff. Disposing of it costs the company £250,000 ($375,000) a year. Now the distillery is supplying Celtic Renewables with feedstock for an ongoing pilot project that will turn the organic matter into useful industrial alcohols including biobutanol, which supporters say is superior to the world's current most popular biofuel—ethanol.

Why? Proponents say that biobutanol’s four-carbon molecular structure packs 25 percent more energy by volume than ethanol; and that it has a lower flashpoint, so it's easier to store and handle.

Like any good whisky, biobutanol can be consumed “neat”—burned directly in an internal-combustion engine, in lieu of gasoline. However, the company plans to blend a percentage of the biofuel into gasoline as an additive, which is the way in which ethanol is used most often.

And even during the additive process, there is an extra level of convenience. Unlike ethanol, biobutanol can be mixed into gasoline at the refinery without any modifications, and it can be blended with diesel and biodiesel.

Celtic Renewables' version also avoids a key pitfall of many conventionally produced biofuels: Because it's brewed on biowaste, it does not require additional land and crops that could be used for food.

If Tangney’s concept proves to be practicable, it also would help Scotland to meet its goal of reducing its national waste stream, which is why Zero Waste Scotland, a government-funded agency, gave Celtic Renewables a £155,000 ($232,500) grant. The company also received a £267,000 ($400,500) proof of concept grant from Scottish Enterprise, another government agency. Overall, Tangney said, the company has raised about £750,000 ($1.13 million) from public grants and private investment.

Dennis McPhail, Scottish Enterprise's adviser to Celtic Renewables, said the agency considers the company a particularly good bet. "We thought it was incredibly different. We thought, 'This is quite neat,'" McPhail told National Geographic.




Edited by Alisen Downey


Green Technology Related Articles






Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy