Celtic Renewables debuts; biobutanol from Scottish whiskey byproducts

In Scotland, Napier University’s Biofuel Research Centre has spun-out a new start-up, Celtic Renewables to develop biobutanol sourced from the £4 billion malt whisky industry in Scotland. Celtic Renewables, Scotland’s first biobutanol company, is now working with Scottish Enterprise to produce the fuel from sustainable resources on an industrial scale.

Its fermentation process uses the two main by-products of whisky production – ‘pot ale’, the liquid from the copper stills, and ‘draff’, the spent grains. Each year the industry produces 1600 million litres of pot ale and 500,000 tonnes of draff.

The initial research project received £267,000 of support from Scottish Enterprise’s Proof of Concept Programme, while Celtic Renewables has since benefited from a £70,000 Scottish Enterprise SMART: Scotland grant to assist the technology scale-up and commercial feasibility. In addition, Celtic Renewables CEO Mark Simmers joined via the Saltire Foundation Fellowship – a Government and industry backed initiative to align Scotland’s next generation of leaders with promising new companies.