Spin-out fuelled by whisky

Celtic Renewables, a spin-out of Edinburgh Napier University, has successfully generated useable biofuel from whisky waste products.

The UK-based firm has been developing the technology, which could be used to power cars, to be deployed on an industrial scale over the past year with £1m ($1.55m) in support from the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change.

The company is now chasing £25m in an advanced biofuel demonstration competition held by the UK Department for Transportation. If successful, the company plans to open its first demonstration facility by 2018, and position itself as a market leader in an industry estimated to be worth £100m to the UK economy.

Mark Simmers, CEO of Celtic Renewables, said: “The process we have perfected takes residues that present a disposal issue to the whisky industry and creates value by producing not only sustainable biofuel but also green chemicals and high grade animal feed. The exciting challenge for us now as a business is to convert our proven technology into a multimillion pound industry, and building our first demonstration plant is the next critical step to achieving that goal.”