The waste from whiskey fermentation can produce an efficient, sustainable biofuel. Cheers!
Only ten percent of the distillery output is the primary product of whiskey. The other 90 percent consists of two types of waste: pot ale, which is the liquid residue from yeast, and draff, which is the sugar-rich barley kernels. Scottish distilleries produce around 750,000 tons of draff and two billion litres of pot ale every year. Celtic Renewables, based on Edinburgh, Scotland, has developed a commercially-scaled way to convert these copious waste products into biobutanol.
They re-adapted a traditional fermentation process called Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol that had fallen from popularity when cheap petroleum became available. Their process involves combining pot ale and draff into a new raw material and then putting it through a different fermentation reaction. The results are higher-value products, including biobutanol. The type of biofuel getting the most attention right now is ethanol, but it's made using corn and sugarcane that could otherwise be used as food. Biobutanol is thus more environmentally friendly since it recycles waste products.
Celtic Renewables has received grants from the British government to continue developing their technology. Once this biofuel comes to market, we can reduce our dependence on oil and pat ourselves on the back for supporting the whiskey industry.
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