A scientist has produced the first commercially viable fuel to be developed from whisky by-products.
Professor Martin Tangney, director of Napier University's biofuel research centre, has produced an advanced biofuel called biobutanol, which could provide an alternative to oil for car and aviation fuel as well as other technologies.
Whisky accounts for just 10 per cent of the material produced in distilleries, with the remaining biological raw materials disposed of at a cost to the industry.
Prof Tangney has set up a business called Celtic Renewables which will take those by-products and turn them into fuel.
He unveiled the first-ever samples of biobutanol at the Scotch Whisky Experience in Edinburgh.
"The underlying technology that we use in this process is actually 100 years old," he said.
"It's fermentation known as the ABE fermentation, which was developed in the UK mainly to produce acetone for explosives in the First World War, and by the end of the Second World War it was the second biggest biological process that the world had seen.
"It died out in the 1960s because it couldn't compete with the petrochemical industry as a source of these chemicals."
Prof Tangney said that in 2006, an American inventor, David Ramey, drove a car for more than 16,000km using only butanol in an unmodified engine, showing the world the chemical could be used as a fuel.
"What I sought to do was to see if I could adapt that proven technology into a modern context," he said.
But instead of using crops as the raw material, he looked at some other residue.
"We looked at the Scottish malt whisky industry as a source of this raw material," Prof Tangney said.
"Less than 10 per cent of what comes out of a distillery is actually whisky and the other products have no, limited or even negative value to the industry.
"That, to me, looked like a great source of raw material."
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