Biochemicals from bugs is a dram good idea

Almost two decades earlier, things could have been so different. A scientist and biochemist, Chaim Weizmann, working in Manchester, had developed a scalable biological fermentation process, using a strain of bacteria called Clostridium acetobutylicum.

This was a process that could have taken us in a very different direction had the 1960s oil bonanza not come along. As a process, it also promised to be vastly lower in terms of its carbon footprint, not that people were much bothered by that at the time. Unfortunately, because it used food crops as the feedstock for the bacteria, it was expensive – and not particularly sustainable. 

However, Weizmann’s ‘bugs’ produced acetone, butanol and ethanol in a process that came to be known either as the Weizmann process or the ABE process. Acetone is a key ingredient in the making of explosives and his discovery was timely, in terms of the onset of the First World War. It was huge for the munitions manufacturers throughout that war and just as important through the Second World War. Fermentation plants sprang up around the world.

However, even with all this production capacity, we failed to move on to biofuels since as soon as oil became plentiful, people rapidly discovered that acetone, butanol and ethanol could be made far more cheaply from petroleum.

The ABE process was virtually consigned to history. However, after a considerable research effort, a Scottish company, Celtic Renewables, is out to prove that chemical production from fermentation can be done cost-effectively and on a large enough industrial scale to make a break from fossil fuels and petrochemicals a realistic option.

Professor Martin Tangney OBE is the Founder and President of Celtic Renewables. A microbiologist by training, he worked for a time at Novozymes, one of the global leaders in biotechnology. When he left Novozymes he joined the academic department at Edinburgh Napier University.

“I was hugely interested in the ABE process, which by then was virtually considered defunct. However, Weizmann’s process at one point in its history was second only to the drinks industry as the world’s biggest biological process,” he comments. Tangney’s work with Novozymes had familiarised him with patenting and how to scale up a laboratory innovative process into a global production process. “What I was doing was to look at the ABE process to see if it could be redeveloped and successfully commercialised,” he says.

He knew that there was a ready market for sustainably produced butanol, since an American, David Raney had driven a butanol fuelled car 10,000 miles across the USA to prove its value as a biofuel.

“That created a wave of interest. What we had to do was to get the bacteria to produce ABE on a less costly diet,” he comments.

Tangney focused on the residues produced by the Scottish whisky industry. It was a less than intuitively obvious decision since the sugars, which are essential to fermentation had already been largely removed from the residues in the distillery process. However, he and his team proved that it worked and solved the problem of producing ABE in industrial quantities.

Celtic Renewables’ first commercial scale biorefinery is currently under construction at Grangemouth and will be producing acetone butanol and ethanol before the end of this year.

As he himself points out, being able to point to a working refinery that has some scale to it is absolutely critical to the next stage of Celtic Renewables attempt to convert the world to sustainable chemicals.

“What I often say is that in this business everybody wants to be the first to be second. To grow an industry you have to show a proven working production plant that has a demonstrable scale to it and you have to show that the production process is cost-effective in the modern market,” he comments.

In his view, Celtic Renewables is now very much at this point. The whisky industry in Scotland is estimated to produce around two million litres of pot ale and 750,000 tonnes of malt draff annually.

Taking this low-value residue and turning it into high value, low carbon products, whilst simultaneously solving the problem that originally consigned the ABE process to the history books, is a tremendous achievement.

As Tangney notes, Celtic Renewables have been well supported in their start-up period with government funding through Scottish Enterprise, significant private equity investment and more recently through a very successful £3.5 million crowdfunding exercise.

“I filed a number of patents and used these as our currency to found Celtic Renewables as an independent company. There is a massive distinction between growing bacteria in the lab for research purposes and running an industrial scale refinery.

“We have gathered a tremendous team here at Celtic Renewables and that has enabled us to build the UK and Scotland’s first bio-refinery.

“We have proved that this process can scale and it is no longer just a good idea – this pioneering plant signals the arrival of Celtic Renewables as an industry.

“We are now getting worldwide attention in the build up to COP26, so we are actively drawing up plans to build much bigger facilities both here and around the world. 

“And it’s not just about whisky residues either, we can use a wide array of wastes and residues in the process – the potential global economic and environmental impact is enormous.

“I firmly believe that companies like us can make a genuine difference and I hope that this COP focuses on how and not why.”

Electric flight odyssey highlights the innovators ahead of COP26

SACHA Dench is on a world-first circumnavigation of mainland Britain in an effort to raise awareness of climate change. She’s piloting an adapted electric paramotor and stopping at sites and companies that are deemed to be making great contributions towards the UK’s drive towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (2045 for Scotland).

The ground-breaking journey across Britain involves Sacha travelling anti-clockwise around Britain. Her journey started in Glasgow on 21 June and will end in Glasgow. Her aim is to get as many people as possible across the UK excited about the upcoming COP26, to be held in Glasgow on 1 – 12 November this year.

In the process she will be attempting to set two Guinness World Records, for the fastest flight around Britain and as the first person to achieve the circumnavigation in an electric paramotor. Her aim is also to get more than 140,000 people to make a climate pledge via Count Us In, a project that aims to get one billion people to make a pledge to change some aspects of their lives to reduce their carbon footprint.

One of the stops that Dench will be making along the way will be at Celtic Renewables Grangemouth refinery. The company, founded by Edinburgh Napier University professor and microbiologist Martin Tangney, has revitalised and transformed a biological fermentation process invented in the early 1900s which produces sustainable chemicals.

Tangney says his mission is to move the world away from a reliance on fossil fuels and petrochemicals. His refinery is set to produce sustainable green chemicals at a commercial scale before the end of the year, which makes the company a great stopping off point for Sacha Dench and her campaign.

Commenting on her campaign, Dench said: “I want to capture the imaginations of the young and old, rural and urban, and focus on answers to the climate crisis – not problems - and encourage everyone, to get involved. We’ll be finding the likely and unlikely heroes, discovering where and what works, and Celtic Renewables are a wonderful example of pioneering green innovation. I very much look forward to visiting Martin and the team at the site of their first production facility.”

Dench is a UN Ambassador and is well known for her global expeditions accompanying migratory species. She turned her attention to climate change after losing her family home to bushfires last year.

Dench said that one of the motives for her trip is to try to demonstrate just how far it is possible to go in terms of decarbonising transport in general and our lifestyles in particular. The fact that she has to make frequent stops to change batteries provides a great opportunity to highlight companies with great contributions to greening up our lives.

This article is brought to you in association with Celtic Renewables.