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Edinburgh Napier University has developed a new biofuel made from whisky by-products.It is the result of two years work by the universities biofuel research centre. The £260,000 project was funded by Scottish Enterprise's Proof of Concept programme. It has been welcomed by WWF Scotland's director Dr Richard Dixon who said it would help a "clean environment" industry to reduce transport emissions. As part of the research, the centre was provided with samples of whisky distilling by-products from Diageo's Glenkinchie Distillery in Edinburgh. The team focused on the whisky industry to develop biobutanol, the next generation of biofuel which gives 30%...

Those working to develop U.S. biobutanol production stress that they should not be seen as competitors to the existing ethanol industry any more than cellulosic ethanol should be seen as a competitor to corn ethanol. Rather, they note that producers of all biofuels share the same goals, and will be valuable allies in meeting the second stage of the renewable fuel standard (RFS2) requirements, limiting U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and furthering the political initiatives of the renewable fuels industry.

Makers of Ethanol Ponder Alternative By RUSSELL GOLD Some ethanol makers, battered by unpredictable profit margins and criticism that production of the corn-based fuel drives up food prices, are being presented with a way out: making biobutanol. Biofuels entrepreneurs are hoping to snap up idled and financially distressed ethanol plants and convert them to make biobutanol, another plant-based fuel that can be blended into gasoline or used to make plastic products such as water bottles. Denver-based Gevo Inc., a privately held biofuels start-up, is expected to say Wednesday that it is lining up financing to acquire and retrofit as many...

Everyone seems to think that ethanol is a good way to make cars greener. Everyone is wrong SOMETIMES you do things simply because you know how to. People have known how to make ethanol since the dawn of civilisation, if not before. Take some sugary liquid. Add yeast. Wait. They have also known for a thousand years how to get that ethanol out of the formerly sugary liquid and into a more or less pure form. You heat it up, catch the vapour that emanates, and cool that vapour down until it liquefies. The result burns. And when Henry Ford...

President Bush said he would speed up his alternative-energy push during the remainder of his term with new spending focused on easing bottlenecks that are slowing the spread of ethanol in the market. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on a swing through Alabama, Mr. Bush said he is seeking ways to overcome difficulties in transporting the fuel, and to increase the number of stations selling it.

In a highly publicized public relations event at Faneuil Hall Monday, Sen. John Kerry outlined his proposal that the Federal Government mandate a reduction in oil consumption of 2.5 million barrels of oil a day --- an amount equivalent to all the oil we currently import from the Persian Gulf.