The following idea could not have emerged from anywhere else than Scotland. Creating bio butanol fuel out of Whisky byproducts! It must be the most obvious plan ever…
A team of Scottish researchers actually did it. It took them 2 years and a lot of money, but they developed a process that uses Whiskey brewing byproducts that normally would go to waste to create bio butanol (and to no longer waste them). The advantage of butanol is that it can be used in gasoline engines without modification. The used byproducts are ‘pot ale’, the liquid from the stills, and ‘draff’, the grains used in the whisky brewing process. If it wouldn’t be for the bio butanol creation, 1600 million litres (of pot ale) and 187000 tonnes (draff) would go to waste a year.
I’m not sure to how much (single malt?) Scottish butanol this would amount, but it sure sounds like a great plan. Too bad it’s not possible to deploy such a process in other countries. However, one attractive way to make this process more broadly applicable would be to start brewing Whisky on a huge scale 
.
Photo by Calidenism
Related Posts (automatically generated)
- Turning a party into renewable energy
- Schiphol Starts Algae Production
- Dutch Breakthrough In Biofuel
- Converting CO2 Into Fuel
- New Process Is Promising For Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars
About David Graus
David Graus used to write on popular science for (very) traditional media. After wrapping up his job, traveling for a couple of months and returning to university to get his Master's degree he made the leap to the blogosphere! He likes science and techy stuff. You can follow David on Twitter: @dvdgrs 