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| Whisky Byproducts - the Next Car Fuel? |
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Scotland is the world's largest whisky producer.
And a Scottish professor has discovered
how to take the waste products from distilling whisky
and turn them into biobutanol,
an alcohol that can be used as fuel.
Martin Tangney founded Celtic Renewables,
an Edinburgh-based company
that is producing biobutanol
at a plant in Belgium.
"In the production of whisky,
less than 10 percent of what comes out of the distillery
is actually the primary product.
The bulk of the remainder are these unwanted residues -
pot ale and barley."
Those residues are combined
to create a new raw material.
And by adapting a century-old fermentation process,
it is converted into biobutanol.
The whisky-based biofuel provides more power than bioethanol,
which is made from corn or sugar cane.
"It has almost the same amount of energy as petrol,
whereas bioethanol has only got 70 percent of it.
You can store it, and pipe it,
and use the existing infrastructure to distribute this,
and in fact, you do not need to modify an engine."
Tangney doesn't expect biobutanol
to replace gasoline altogether,
but be blended with it.
It's possible
the fuel may also be used
in planes and ships, and in heaters.
He says consumers would also be helping the environment.
"They are in fact helping the planet
and can reduce amount of oil that we consume
by putting this into their cars."
Celtic Renewables has received a $17 million grant
from the British government
to build a plant in Scotland
that's expected to be operational
within three years.
Deborah Block, VOA News, Washington |
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