Whisky Isn't Just For Drinking Anymore — It Could Soon Fuel Your Car

Alcohol and cars aren't normally two things that pair well together, but a successful test drive of a car fueled by whisky residue last month may be an exception to that rule.

Two Scottish companies, Celtic Renewables Ltd. and Tullibardine Distillery, recently teamed up to create a new biofuel called biobutanol, which is made from draff and pot ale (two materials that are left over from Scotch whisky fermentation). According to BBC Scotland, the biofuel can be used in any car that's normally powered by gas or diesel, and a recent test driver reported no noticeable difference in how the whisky-fuel car handled.

Electric and hybrid cars have long been hailed as green solutions to petrol-powered cars. But a significant draw to biobutanol is that it doesn't require car manufacturers to redesign their engines in order to be a viable fuel option.

The biofuel could also become a major money saver in the whisky production industry. According to the BBC, nearly 750 thousand tons of draff and 2 billion liters of pot ale are created each year by the Scottish malt whisky industry. For Tullibardine Distillery, the annual costs associated with disposing of what would otherwise be waste amount to around $400,000. By teaming up with Celtic Renewables Ltd., the distillery can reportedly decrease that figure significantly, making their collaboration mutually beneficial.

"The whisky industry will now have a sustainable and reliable way of disposing of their residue," Martin Tangney, Celtic Renewables president and director of Edinburgh Napier University's Biofuel Research Centre, told Reuters. "Plus we’ll create a brand new industry out of something that has no value whatsoever."

Tangney's company has already received 9 million pounds in funding from the Scottish government and other investors, and he hopes to open a factory in 2018 that will produce about 500,000 liters of biotutanol each year. Should Celtic Renewables Ltd. expand and collaborate with all Scottish whisky distilleries, he thinks they could drive that figure up to about 50 million liters annually, according to Reuters.

Biobutanol is only being made from Scotch whisky right now, but given that the United States and Canada produce 37 million and 21 million cases of whiskey each year, respectively, it seems like the biofuel has potential to scale internationally.

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