The
news media and the blogosphere seem to be awash in news about aqua vitae – aka uisge
beatha – or simple whisky. The Scottish
single malt of course. While it’s nice to have a little on hand for medicinal
purposes, it seems that the Scots have decided that they have a new way to make
money from the wondrous liquor.
The fermentation process produces
other alcohols as well as ethanol. The latter of course we love and large
volumes of ethanol/water blends flavored with various natural flavors are
consumed in large quantities worldwide. But higher alcohols are also produced.
The principle one is butanol. Now, we can metabolize butanol, although it is
three times as toxic as ethanol, but too much effects the taste and the
resulting headache.
A new
company, Celtic Renewables Ltd., has been spawned by Napier U with the intent
of harvesting the butanol (1,2). A good whisky still condenses out most of the
butanol so it doesn’t end up in your glass and so the target is the waste from
the process. That is, the undistilled liquor known as pot ale by the
cognoscenti and also there is potential in the wet grain mash remaining from
the fermentation process (draff).
So what
are they going to do with all this butanol? Biofuel, of course, as it can be
blended easily with gasoline to higher percentages than ethanol and packs more
punch liter for liter.
Soon we’ll
see breweries and wineries getting into the act. Don’t know about the cider
makers though, those old English farmhouse scrumpy makers seemed to be happy
slurping down exciting blends of various alcohols and related organics.
Soon it
seems that we’ll be helping to save the planet by making our daily ‘wee dram’
(for our health’s sake, of course) into a ‘muckle dram’ even if it’s from a
combination of several mickle ones.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-16701335
- http://www.napier.ac.uk/randkt/rktcentres/bfrc/Pages/Butanol.aspx
