Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University Use By-Products of Whisky to Develop Butanol

Researchers at Edinburgh Napier University have proved that spin-offs of distilling factories can be used to produce butanol to power cars and airplanes. For researching they used samples from the Glenkinchie Distillery located in East Lothian.

The two key derivatives of the whisky distilling process such as pot ale, a suspension from the copper stills and dregs, of the spent grains were used in the research for the production of bio-fuel. The process attempted by the research team matures the lees into butanol which provides 30% more power than the conventionally produced biofuel ethanol. The process is developed over an existing procedure of producing butanol and acetone by fermenting sugar. The researchers have developed a new course for comparable reaction from whiskey derivatives and filed a patent for the developed process and are working out to commercialize the product by launching a company.

Professor Martin Tangney, who led the project, said the use of waste products deem to be more environment friendly than cultivating particular crops for the production of biofuel. He further said that the new invention will also make significant contributions to meet the EU set targets of 10% biofuel usage by the year 2020.