Like virtually all forms of production, distilling Scotch creates by-products. Now, researchers are looking into whether these by-products could be put to use to both save money and promote sustainability.
The researchers from the University of Aberdeen, working with the startup Ripcell, have investigated recovering chemical compounds like lactic acid from materials like pot ale and spent lees. These compounds can be used by the chemical industry such as in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
“Around 2.6 billion liters of wastewater is produced from the Scottish whisky industry every year, so the potential of this process is huge,” said Dr Eve Wildman, founder of Ripcell. “For decades, the majority of these co-products have been used as animal feed, but we have found a new, more valuable option to deal with spent lees that could change the ways in which distilleries manage and process their residues.
“At the same time, this could be transformational for the chemicals industry. By taking a sustainable approach to manufacturing key compounds, rather than using fossil fuels, Ripcell can help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the production process. For every kilo of bio-chemicals produced, we can remove 1.59kg of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.”
The whisky by-products used in the research were provided by Chivas Brothers, which sent material from 12 of its distilleries around Scotland. One of the challenges of developing the process is that different distilleries use different processes, so each produces a slightly different type of waste.
The researchers used a technique called liquid chromatography to separate out the compounds that they wanted, and now they want to work on scaling up this process to operate on an industrial level.
“The idea of utilizing waste water from a traditional industry like whisky production for the recovery of bio-based chemicals is highly innovative,” said Dr Alan Mccue, senior lecturer at the University of Aberdeen. “It’s great to see Scottish heritage being linked to sustainable chemical production.”
