Celtic Renewables wins top award for whisky by-product biobutanol
In Scotland, Celtic Renewables won the top motor industry sustainability award for their technology, which produces biobutanol from whisky byproducts. The company received the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership’s Low Carbon Champion award last week.
Celtic Renewables is a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University which converts two key by-products of whisky production, ‘pot ale’ and ‘draff’, into biobutanol. The UK government recently provided £800,000 to the project, contributing to its £1.2million second round funding.
In addition to working with Tullibardine distillery to commercilise the process, earlier this year, the company signed an agreement with Bio Base Europe’s plant in Ghent, Europe’s foremost biotechnology pilot facility, to undergo further testing on the project.
As the Digest reported in 2012, Celtic Renewables received the “Best Innovation” award at the Scottish Green Energy Awards for their technology. In addition, founder and President Professor Martin Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering at the IChemE Awards.
Category: Fuels
