Car owners could soon be filling up their tanks with a new whisky-derived fuel, according to scientists at a Scottish University.
Edinburgh’s Napier University has created a new biofuel, which can be used in ordinary cars without any special adaptions.
It uses the two main by-products of the whisky production process – ‘pot ale’, the liquid from the copper stills, and ‘draff’, the spent grains, as the basis for producing the butanol that can then be used as fuel.
With 1,600 million litres of pot ale and 187,000 tonnes of draff produced by the malt whisky industry annually, it reports there is potential for bio-fuel to be available at local garage forecourts alongside traditional fuels.
Professor Martin Tangney, director of the Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University, said, ‘This is a more environmentally sustainable option and potentially offers new revenue on the back of one Scotland’s biggest industries.’
The University now plans to take the new fuel to market and make it available at petrol pumps.
Written by decanter.com staff
