A shot of whisky and some chemical feedstocks please

WHISKY waste could provide high-value feedstocks such as lactic acid for the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industries as researchers push to scale up a separations process.

Scientists from chemical manufacturing business Ripcell and the University of Aberdeen have demonstrated that liquid chromatography can be used to extract acids and solvents from pot ale and spent lees – the coproducts of the first and second stages of the whisky distillation process.

The residue from pot ale is typically used in low-value applications including making animal feeds, while spent lees are simply thrown away. Up to ten litres of spent lees are produced for every litre of whisky made.

The team says a life-cycle analysis found the bio-based products produced through the process have a significantly lower carbon footprint than conventional petrochemical routes and estimates that at a global scale it could reduce annual emissions by 392m kg of CO2/y from a market worth up to £90m (US$117m).

Following the success of the feasibility study, the team is now looking to scale up to prove viability at industrial scale.

Eve Wildman, founder of Ripcell, said: “Around 2.6 billion litres of wastewater is produced from the Scottish whisky industry every year, so the potential of this process is huge.”

Liz Fletcher, director of business engagement at IBioIC, said: “This project is a brilliant example of how we can add economic value by taking a circular approach to co-products and applying biotechnology.”

The UK’s Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre helped fund the project and whisky group Chivas provided waste stream samples from 12 of its Scottish distilleries.