http://news.discovery.com
- Analysis by Alyssa Danigelis
Scientists in Scotland announced this week that they figured out a way to produce biofuel from whiskey. At first, this dram fan was horrified: Why would anyone want to waste good whiskey to make biofuel? But the process turns out to be rather brilliant.
A team of researchers at Edinburgh Napier University's Biofuel Research Center led by the center's director, biology professor Martin Tangney, have spent the last two years experimenting with two byproducts of the whiskey-making process.
They took the byproducts, a liquid from copper stills called "pot ale" and spent grains, wonderfully named "draff," and turned it into a butanol "superfuel." The butanol could then be blended with regular gasoline or diesel, similar to the way small amounts of ethanol are blended now, meaning engines wouldn't need any alterations.
The scientists used draff and pot ale from the Glenkinchie Distillery in Pencaitland, Scotland, but they're staying mum on exactly how they made the biofuel. I can only imagine there were some heady smells involved. The potential market for transforming this organic waste into fuel is actually sizable. According to the university, the $6.25 billion whiskey industry produces more than 400 million gallons of pot ale and 187,000 tons of draff every year. So far, the scientists have filed a patent on the biofuel and plan to start a company that will develop it commercially.
I think the appropriate thing to say now is something along the lines of "cheers!" or "bottoms up!" but I'm going to go with "whiskey-biofuel!" Neat.
Photo: A whiskey library. Credit: Ethan Prater.
Daryl Hannah was arrested by U.S. Park Police Tuesday at a protest in front of the White House. Hannah was participating in a sit-in against the construction of a pipeline that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The actress was handcuffed by police after she refused to move. She paid an $100 fine and was released from custody. Hannah, who starred in such classic '80s films as “Roxanne” and “Wall Street,” has been active in environmental causes for years. She was previously arrested in 2006 for protesting efforts to bulldoze the country’s largest urban farm in Los Angeles and in 2009 for protesting mountaintop removal in West Virginia. She has long been an advocate for curbing use of fossil fuels.
