Perhaps it’s not surprising that Scottish scientists took on the task of reworking a byproduct from whisky production into the fuel of the future.
This isn’t the first technology of its kind to come out of Scotland. Previously, other local research teams proposed ways to use distillery waste from the country’s popular national drink.
This time, the university team developed a breakthrough using wastewater from distilleries to produce green hydrogen. Unlike fossil fuels, green hydrogen doesn’t emit carbon when burned, The Independent reported.
Green hydrogen is typically produced using freshwater, a process experts say consumes about 20.5 billion liters per year. Researchers hope their method could replace about one billion liters of that freshwater with the wastewater generated during whisky production.
Dr. Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu, a materials scientist at the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, explained: “To produce each kilogram of green hydrogen, nine kilograms of water are needed. Meanwhile, every liter of produced malt whisky generates about 10 liters of residue.”
Dr. Pitchaimuthu said protecting the planet requires reducing the use of freshwater and other natural resources. He urged focusing on using distillery wastewater to produce green hydrogen.
Dr. Pitchaimuthu and his colleagues have developed a nanoscale material that will allow wastewater from distilleries to replace freshwater in the process of producing green hydrogen.
“About one billion liters of wastewater are produced annually in the distillation industry, so the potential of this process is enormous,” Dr. Pitchaimuthu noted. He said the research demonstrates how global resources can be used more efficiently to produce clean energy.
The next step for the research team will be to develop an electrolyzer prototype. The scientists will also conduct a deeper analysis of the wastewater from distilleries to determine if other valuable materials can be extracted from it.
The results were published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Sustainable Energy & Fuels.
