Scientists in Scotland are using the country's favourite tipple to create next-generation biofuels which could have economic and environmental benefits. EPTV investigates.

Reporter: Tanking up on whisky

Putting crops into cars was the idea  behind the first generation of biofuels

However, this led to a global food crisis

with land being cleared for fuel  rather than food.

The EU is now working  to reverse this trend.

The idea is to move over to biofuels  of the second and third generation,

which use either waste  or a non-food part of plants.

I think that's a very interesting  economic development model

which could allow research and  development to discover real prospects

In Scotland they're developing a way  of getting from A to B on whisky.

Think of Scotland,  and whisky instantly springs to mind.

This iconic industry is worth  4.6 billion euros to the economy.

But it comes at a huge cost  to the environment.

It is one of the most  energy-intensive industries.

No figures exist for its carbon footprint,

but now they're trying  to cover their tracks.

Here at Tullibardine Distillery  only 3% of all products

that go through  the whisky distillery process

end up in the bottle that you buy.  The remaining 97% ends up as waste.

It has to be discarded  at a cost of 293,000 euros per year.

So it makes economic and environmental  sense to turn their whisky green.

The malt whisky process  has changed little in over 200 years.

It involves just three ingredients:  water, barley and yeast.

which is basically water  with a lot of dead yeast in it.

And a road tanker comes along  and takes that away.

The draff up there  goes to a local dairy farmer

This stuff gets sprayed back  on to the fields

The whisky industry traditionally recycles  its waste for fertiliser and animal feed.

But this man had another idea  for meeting renewable energy targets.

I'd love to say I had  a eureka moment in the bath,

and a lovely story to tell about drinking  a dram of whisky and having inspiration.

where was the biggest source  of raw material we could tap into

and derive value  where there was no value.

The Biofuel Research Centre  in Edinburgh

took a 100-year-old scientific process  to produce biobutanol,

a next-generation biofuel,  and adapted it for whisky.

When you've malted the barley,  you're left with this material.

When you distil off the alcohol, you have  the distillate from the copper stills.

So we developed a process  where we combine

this liquid material  with this solid material

and make a new raw material that  we re-ferment with different organisms

that produce high-value chemicals,  including this which is butanol.

So we aim to produce something like this,  which is a fermentation vessel.

This will be done at much larger scale  in industry than we have done in the lab.

Biobutanol can be put directly into cars

and has 25% more energy  per unit volume

than bioethanol, which was  the favoured biofuel until recently.

of the UK's 10% renewable  transport fuel target by 2020,

and save 3.2 million tonnes of CO2  each year.

It's the equivalent of taking  nearly a million cars off the road.

Celtic Renewables is the company that  hopes to capitalise on the lab's research.

The business model is to take  two very low-value commodities or residues

and convert them into five or six  much-needed high-value commodities

So there's as much acetone imported  into the UK as there is whisky exported.

Biobutanol is  an advanced-generation biofuel

that the country needs  to meet its biofuel targets.

Scaling the five-litre lab model  up to a 10,000-litre working plant

Celtic Renewables are talking  to Tullibardine Distillery

and larger companies such as Diageo  to take their project to the next level.

Here in Leith  beside the old whisky bond storehouses,

the director of  Friends of the Earth Scotland

explained why whisky makers  are cleaning up their act.

There's a range of factors.  European regulation is part of it.

Probably water regulation  was the first one to make them think,

'We'd better take  this environment stuff seriously.'

But also the high cost of fuels  and some consumer pressure,

because people are looking in a premium  product for the green credentials.

Whisky is a serious business in Scotland.

Customers are always looking out  for the latest trend.

I am a whisky drinker,  and I guess any kind of...

As a whisky drinker, you're interested  in many different aspects about whisky.

With whisky, any kind of story  behind any distillery

is a good story to tell to the customer  if they want to ask about whiskies.

Celtic Renewables hopes to have plants  operational by the end of this year.

So soon whisky drinkers can enjoy their  favourite tipple with a clearer conscience.