Now, a car powered by whisky residue

We have heard of vehicles that run on biofuel. But, what if we tell you that there could soon be vehicles powered by the residue of the whisky. No, we aren’t kidding. Scientists in Scotland have become the first in the world to produce biofuel capable of powering cars from residues of the whisky industry.

Celtic Renewables, a company based out of Edinburgh has developed a process to make biofuel from Scotch whisky's leftovers. The firm is mulling to build a production facility in central Scotland. Celtic Renewables states that only about seven per cent of the stuff that leaves the distilleries is whisky. The rest is variously referred to as by-product, residue or - less charitably - waste.

The company has been awarded Rs 112.62 crore by the Scotland government to fund a new plant to make the biofuels. Transport minister Andrew Jones has stated that advanced biofuel have the potential to save at least 60 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions from equivalent fossil fuel. He stated that this technique could transform the Scottish whisky industry and generate up to Rs 1,023.86 crore of transport fuel each year.

He is of the opinion that the latest biofuels use low value waste products to produce high value fuel and will help power modes of transport that cannot be electrified in the future such as heavy trucks or even aircraft.

The company said it expects its new facility to be operational by December 2018, producing at least one million litre of biofuel capable of powering cars each year. According to the firm, the process to convert whisky by-products into fuel has been around since the First World War, but was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.

The biofuel is produced from draff — the sugar rich kernels of barley soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production — and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.

Prof Martin Tangney, Founder, Celtic Renewables, states that the result of this process is a fuel which can go straight into a petrol tank without having to modify the car.

Scotland's distilleries currently produce around 7,50,000 tons of draff and 2 billion litre of pot ale annually.

Source: TOI