The Scottish government has moved to set up a new company to commercialise a process of making biofuel from whisky industry by-products. Celtic Renewables aims to capitalise on Scotland's £4 billion malt whisky industry by developing biobutanol and animal feed.

Scottish energy minister furgus Ewing said the fuel could be used to power family cars and will help develop ‘energy security’, particularly in the remote Whisky producing regions of Scotland. However, the fuel will still need to be blended with petrol for use in cars and will still contribute to pollution. The failure to develop clean fuel and move away from a dependency on polluting, albeit renewable, technologies has incurred criticism from environmentalists.

The two principal by-products of whisky production will be used by the renewable company to create its fuel on an industrial scale. The process uses ‘pot ale’ (liquid from the copper stills) and ‘draff’ (spent grains), of which the Scottish whisky industry produces 1600 million litres and 500,000 tonnes respectively each year.

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