MOTORING NEWS - An Irish scientist has given new meaning to 'getting tanked up' and 'drink driving' after perfecting a green way to fuel cars with Scotch.The biofuel made from the by-products of Scotch whisky distillation is just as effective as normal petrol and just as easy on the engine, which requires no modifications.
This may be news to the younger generation, but during World War II in South Africa, many cars were running sweetly on a mixture of traditional oil-based fuel and alchohol. In 1908, Henry Ford designed his Model T to run on a mixture of gasoline and alcohol, calling it the fuel of the future. In 1919, when Prohibition began, ethanol was banned because it was considered liquor. It could only be sold when it was mixed with petroleum. With the end of Prohibition in 1933, ethanol was used as a fuel again. Ethanol use increased temporarily during World War II when oil and other resources were scarce.
Even earlier, before the American civil war, many farmers in the United States even had a special alcohol still to turn crop waste into free fuel.
Professor Martin Tangney from Macroom, County Cork, has been working with some of Scotland's largest whisky producers at the Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University to turn by-products of distillation into fuel. Whether it's single malt, single grain, blended, smoke or peat-flavoured Scotch, the end result is the same: a clean, carbon-neutral fuel that can be blended with regular petrol to run an engine.
While whisky purists may gasp at the thought of a dram of the good stuff going into someone's petrol tank, Tangney reassures them that not one drop of the liquid gold will be wasted while making his biobutanol. Whisky was chosen as the main ingredient in Tangney's two-year-long research project because Scotch malt distillation is one of Scotland's largest industries, worth around R80-billion. It uses the two main by-products of the whisky production process. One is "pot ale", the liquid from the copper stills and the other "draff", the spent grains used as basis for the butanol.
"While some energy companies are growing crops specifically to generate biofuel, we are investigating excess materials such as whisky by-products," he said. "This is a more sustainable option and potentially offers new revenue on the back of one of Scotland and Ireland's biggest industries. We've worked with some of the leading whisky producers to develop the process."
He has patented the process and is currently working with Diageo - which owns the Guinness brand - to look at future partnerships with the oil industry to develop the fuel as an alternative to petrol.
Source: www.irishcentral.com
