Biodiesel produced from the whisky production wastes may come on the market

The Scottish company has adopted an outdated technology of fermentation, which enables the production of biofuel from whisky by-products.

The plans of Celtic Renewables Company in Edinburgh are afoot to build a plant in the Central Scotland. The management of the Company intends to get to grips with this task after the first sample of biobutanol is developed, which will be produced from the by-products of the whisky fermentation process.

The Company in itself is a spin-out Company from of the Scientific Research Centre of Edinburgh Napier University and was founded at the expense of the means allocated by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

Presently the Company takes part in the competition held by the Department of Transport to win 25 millions of pounds, which if gained, will be spent to build the demonstration facility at Grangemouth petrochemical plant. It is expected to achieve these goals by 2018.

The Company owners hope that their product will gain a dominant position in the British biofuel market, the amount of which have already exceeded 100 millions of pounds.

The first samples of biobutanol have been produced with the help of the technology of the acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation. This technology has been employed for the first time in Great Britain about a century ago, but it gave up its positions because of the development of the oil-refining industry. Nowadays biobutanol is regarded as the perspective fuel, therefore Celtic Renewables Company decided to restore its production using millions of tonnes of draff, the whisky liquid by-products which are left over annually.

Professor Martin Tangney, the founder and the president of the Company declared that his team succeeded in adopting this technology in correspondence with everyday realities, which made it attractive for the potential investors and partners such as Tullibardine Company being currently the major producer of the Scotch whisky.

Mark Simmers, the chief executive of the Company entertains the same hopes, for the technology of the acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation allows to produce not only biofuel but also other products such as green chemicals and high-grade animal fodder.