Whisky leftovers instead of fuel ?

Leftovers from a Scottish whisky distillery will be turned into fuel to power cars, after a world-first partnership was agreed.

Tullibardine Distillery in Perthshire has teamed up with Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from Edinburgh's Napier University.

The facility will provide the leftovers, including draff and pot ales, which will then be fed on by bacteria to produce butanol, a fuel that can be used to run vehicles.

Thousands of tonnes of the leftovers will be used in the scheme, with more than 90 per cent of a whisky distillery's surplus not actually being whisky.

Founder of Celtic Renewables, Professor Martin Tangney, said: 'Our partnership with Tullibardine is an important step in the development of a business which combines two iconic Scottish industries - whisky and renewables.'

He added that the project shows how innovative use of existing technologies can 'utilise resources on our doorstep to benefit both the environment and the economy'.

The Scottish government's Zero Waste Scotland scheme has given the project a grant and it is hoped that a processing plant will eventually be built to support an industry that could be worth tens of millions of pounds a year.

In 2010, Napier University announced that it had made a biofuel from whisky by-products following two years of work and investment.


/metro.co.uk/