The company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
THE company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
Prof Tangney has been working with some of Scotland’s largest whiskey producers to turn the by-products of distillation into fuel. His start-up biofuel company, Celtic Renewables, has this week become the biggest winner in a competition run by the Westminster Department for Transport (DfT).
The £11m grant will help it build the world’s first plant dedicated to the production of advanced biofuel from the residues of the whiskey industry.
The Edinburgh-based company is one of three advanced biofuel producers to share in a £25m funding pot.
The company will use the funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1m litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.
Professor Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe’s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.
The process, that uses bacterial fermentation to produce advanced biofuels from carbohydrates, such as starch and glucose, was originally devised in the UK at the start of the last century to produce acetone for explosives used in the World War I. It was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.
Professor Tangney, a graduate of microbiology at UCC, said his aim is now to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whiskey industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.
‘We are committed to developing a new industry in the UK, that will be worth more than £100m-a-year and it starts here,’ he said. ‘We have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.’
‘Our next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that’s strategically right for us.’
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, has spent the last 18 months developing its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. It was recently named the most innovative biotech SME in Europe at an awards ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Biofuel is produced from draff – the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In 2012 Professor Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the UK. He studied microbiology at University College Cork and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a masters in genetics, before doing a PhD at the Heriot-Watt University.
He also worked with Novozymes as a PhD researcher in Denmark and Finland before he progressed to become a Professor at Edinburgh Napier University where, in 2007, he founded the Biofuel Research Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
THE company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
Prof Tangney has been working with some of Scotland’s largest whiskey producers to turn the by-products of distillation into fuel. His start-up biofuel company, Celtic Renewables, has this week become the biggest winner in a competition run by the Westminster Department for Transport (DfT).
The £11m grant will help it build the world’s first plant dedicated to the production of advanced biofuel from the residues of the whiskey industry.
The Edinburgh-based company is one of three advanced biofuel producers to share in a £25m funding pot.
The company will use the funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1m litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.
Professor Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe’s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.
The process, that uses bacterial fermentation to produce advanced biofuels from carbohydrates, such as starch and glucose, was originally devised in the UK at the start of the last century to produce acetone for explosives used in the World War I. It was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.
Professor Tangney, a graduate of microbiology at UCC, said his aim is now to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whiskey industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.
‘We are committed to developing a new industry in the UK, that will be worth more than £100m-a-year and it starts here,’ he said. ‘We have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.’
‘Our next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that’s strategically right for us.’
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, has spent the last 18 months developing its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. It was recently named the most innovative biotech SME in Europe at an awards ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Biofuel is produced from draff – the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In 2012 Professor Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the UK. He studied microbiology at University College Cork and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a masters in genetics, before doing a PhD at the Heriot-Watt University.
He also worked with Novozymes as a PhD researcher in Denmark and Finland before he progressed to become a Professor at Edinburgh Napier University where, in 2007, he founded the Biofuel Research Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
THE company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
Prof Tangney has been working with some of Scotland’s largest whiskey producers to turn the by-products of distillation into fuel. His start-up biofuel company, Celtic Renewables, has this week become the biggest winner in a competition run by the Westminster Department for Transport (DfT).
The £11m grant will help it build the world’s first plant dedicated to the production of advanced biofuel from the residues of the whiskey industry.
The Edinburgh-based company is one of three advanced biofuel producers to share in a £25m funding pot.
The company will use the funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1m litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.
Professor Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe’s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.
The process, that uses bacterial fermentation to produce advanced biofuels from carbohydrates, such as starch and glucose, was originally devised in the UK at the start of the last century to produce acetone for explosives used in the World War I. It was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.
Professor Tangney, a graduate of microbiology at UCC, said his aim is now to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whiskey industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.
‘We are committed to developing a new industry in the UK, that will be worth more than £100m-a-year and it starts here,’ he said. ‘We have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.’
‘Our next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that’s strategically right for us.’
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, has spent the last 18 months developing its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. It was recently named the most innovative biotech SME in Europe at an awards ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Biofuel is produced from draff – the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In 2012 Professor Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the UK. He studied microbiology at University College Cork and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a masters in genetics, before doing a PhD at the Heriot-Watt University.
He also worked with Novozymes as a PhD researcher in Denmark and Finland before he progressed to become a Professor at Edinburgh Napier University where, in 2007, he founded the Biofuel Research Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
THE company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
Prof Tangney has been working with some of Scotland’s largest whiskey producers to turn the by-products of distillation into fuel. His start-up biofuel company, Celtic Renewables, has this week become the biggest winner in a competition run by the Westminster Department for Transport (DfT).
The £11m grant will help it build the world’s first plant dedicated to the production of advanced biofuel from the residues of the whiskey industry.
The Edinburgh-based company is one of three advanced biofuel producers to share in a £25m funding pot.
The company will use the funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1m litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.
Professor Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe’s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.
The process, that uses bacterial fermentation to produce advanced biofuels from carbohydrates, such as starch and glucose, was originally devised in the UK at the start of the last century to produce acetone for explosives used in the World War I. It was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.
Professor Tangney, a graduate of microbiology at UCC, said his aim is now to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whiskey industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.
‘We are committed to developing a new industry in the UK, that will be worth more than £100m-a-year and it starts here,’ he said. ‘We have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.’
‘Our next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that’s strategically right for us.’
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, has spent the last 18 months developing its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. It was recently named the most innovative biotech SME in Europe at an awards ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Biofuel is produced from draff – the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In 2012 Professor Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the UK. He studied microbiology at University College Cork and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a masters in genetics, before doing a PhD at the Heriot-Watt University.
He also worked with Novozymes as a PhD researcher in Denmark and Finland before he progressed to become a Professor at Edinburgh Napier University where, in 2007, he founded the Biofuel Research Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
THE company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
Prof Tangney has been working with some of Scotland’s largest whiskey producers to turn the by-products of distillation into fuel. His start-up biofuel company, Celtic Renewables, has this week become the biggest winner in a competition run by the Westminster Department for Transport (DfT).
The £11m grant will help it build the world’s first plant dedicated to the production of advanced biofuel from the residues of the whiskey industry.
The Edinburgh-based company is one of three advanced biofuel producers to share in a £25m funding pot.
The company will use the funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1m litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.
Professor Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe’s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.
The process, that uses bacterial fermentation to produce advanced biofuels from carbohydrates, such as starch and glucose, was originally devised in the UK at the start of the last century to produce acetone for explosives used in the World War I. It was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.
Professor Tangney, a graduate of microbiology at UCC, said his aim is now to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whiskey industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.
‘We are committed to developing a new industry in the UK, that will be worth more than £100m-a-year and it starts here,’ he said. ‘We have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.’
‘Our next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that’s strategically right for us.’
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, has spent the last 18 months developing its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. It was recently named the most innovative biotech SME in Europe at an awards ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Biofuel is produced from draff – the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In 2012 Professor Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the UK. He studied microbiology at University College Cork and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a masters in genetics, before doing a PhD at the Heriot-Watt University.
He also worked with Novozymes as a PhD researcher in Denmark and Finland before he progressed to become a Professor at Edinburgh Napier University where, in 2007, he founded the Biofuel Research Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
THE company owned by Irish scientist and Macroom native Prof Martin Tangney has been awarded a stg£11m grant after winning a Westminster competition.
Prof Tangney has been working with some of Scotland’s largest whiskey producers to turn the by-products of distillation into fuel. His start-up biofuel company, Celtic Renewables, has this week become the biggest winner in a competition run by the Westminster Department for Transport (DfT).
The £11m grant will help it build the world’s first plant dedicated to the production of advanced biofuel from the residues of the whiskey industry.
The Edinburgh-based company is one of three advanced biofuel producers to share in a £25m funding pot.
The company will use the funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1m litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.
Professor Martin Tangney, the company’s founder and president, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe’s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.
The process, that uses bacterial fermentation to produce advanced biofuels from carbohydrates, such as starch and glucose, was originally devised in the UK at the start of the last century to produce acetone for explosives used in the World War I. It was phased out in the 1960s due to competition from the petrochemical industry.
Professor Tangney, a graduate of microbiology at UCC, said his aim is now to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whiskey industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.
‘We are committed to developing a new industry in the UK, that will be worth more than £100m-a-year and it starts here,’ he said. ‘We have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.’
‘Our next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that’s strategically right for us.’
Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from the Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) at Edinburgh Napier University, has spent the last 18 months developing its process as part of a £1m programme funded by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) under its Energy Entrepreneurs Fund. It was recently named the most innovative biotech SME in Europe at an awards ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels.
Biofuel is produced from draff – the sugar-rich kernels of barley which are soaked in water to facilitate the fermentation process necessary for whisky production – and pot ale, the copper-containing yeasty liquid that is left over following distillation.
In 2012 Professor Tangney was named Innovator of the Year by the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the UK. He studied microbiology at University College Cork and later graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a masters in genetics, before doing a PhD at the Heriot-Watt University.
He also worked with Novozymes as a PhD researcher in Denmark and Finland before he progressed to become a Professor at Edinburgh Napier University where, in 2007, he founded the Biofuel Research Centre, the first of its kind in the UK.
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