Two startups in Grangemouth, UK, that manufacture chemicals by fermenting whisky residues have gained over £9-million in government funds, trying to fill the financial gap left as the nearby oil refinery closes. The UK government is likewise offering £120 million in guaranteed loans and offers for Ineos’s Grangemouth ethylene plant, with the goal of retaining and rebuilding crucial chemicals infrastructure in the area.
Biotech firm MiAlgae feeds whisky waste to a proprietary algae strain to manufacture high-value omega-3 fatty acid nutrients. It’s gained £1.5-million from the Scottish government, so that it will be matched by the United Kingdom government get to £3-million in overall. The Scottish government claims that this will help MiAlgae create up to 310 jobs over the next five years.
The Scottish government also stated that the £6-million it is giving Celtic Renewables will form up to 149 roles in Grangemouth by 2030. This money will support pay for pre-construction work for a latest biorefinery to manufacture acetone, butanol and ethanol. The corporation’s innovation is available in bacterially fermenting leftovers from different industries, normally a integration of reject potatoes and whisky industry effluent. Demand comes from pharmaceutical, cosmetic, fragrance and industrial corporations looking for to defossilise their deliver chains, told the chief executive Mark Simmers.
Every ton of algae MiAlgae manufacture saves 30 tons of fish, it evaluate, maintaining good fish stocks. ‘Omega-3s are acknowledged to be vital, but the main area we are able to get them is from a decreased supply of anchovies, correctly, off the coast of Peru,’ stated Douglas Martin, founder and chief executive of MiAlgae. Its primary clients are animal feed manufacturers, mainly for pet food, but also farming, where omega-3 fatty acids can help pigs and salmon grow quicker. The company was a runner-up in the Earthshot Prize, founded by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough, in 2024.
MiAlgae had already confirmed plans to construct its facility in Grangemouth in April 2025. Although it only begun construction at the beginning of December, the corporation predicts the plant to be operational within 6-months. The fermentation tools has already been constructed and tested on the producers site, so can be disassembled, moved and reassembled enormously rapidly, Martin says.
There is enough waste in the world to absolutely displace the manufacturing of fossil-based acetone and butanol
Martin describes that the government funds will support scale up quickly. ‘Our aim isn’t to be a small producers,’ he stated. ‘Some of our clients’ least orders could be lots of tons.’ The corporation recently employs 60 people for two fermentation modules, however it plans to scale to 50 modules. ‘We’re very confident that we’ll hit that. It’s a timing query, more than anything else, how fast are we able to go?’
Displacing fossil feedstocks
The UK and Scottish governments’ Project Willow report identified Celtic Renewables’ technology as one of the feasible option pathways that might successfully be deployed within the Grangemouth industrial cluster. That record said that acetone–butanol–ethanol bacterial fermentation could generate up to a 100 jobs, needing up to £265 million of capital investment. The UK and Scottish governments have earlier pledged £200 million and £25 million respectively to assist Grangemouth investments.
Celtic Renewables is already strolling a pilot plant in Grangemouth aimed to manufacture 400-tons of product yearly. The £6 million grant will be used for the front-end engineering layout design for a brand new biorefinery, which the corporation will seek for £120-million of personal investment to construct once that work is entire, Simmers says. It would take too long time to construct on the present Petroineos refinery site, so it’s looking at different nearby sites. Like MiAlgae, Celtic Renewables sees speed as being vital, with the corporation planning to build up to a three-biorefineries in the next 5-years, Simmers mentioned.
In spite of each corporations using whisky residues, their chief executives are on friendly phrases and think about their technologies as complementary. Martin stresses that there are around 150 distilleries in Scotland, many being near Grangemouth. ‘With the equivalent of 25 distilleries, we would hit our target of 50,000 tons a year,’ he mentioned.
Simmers adds that he believes that it’s viable to supply the world’s whole demand for acetone and butanol from spirit refinery waste. Celtic Renewables particularly makes use of pot ale, the fermented liquid and barley left over after the first distillation step. ‘There’s 4-billion litres a year of effluent that comes out of the whisky industry,’ he stated. ‘We’re using half of a percent of that during our first plant. If we got it all, we’d be making masses of lots of tons annually. There is enough waste in the world that we should absolutely displace the manufacturing of fossil-based acetone and butanol.’
Both corporations will advantage from the local skills base and infrastructure such as low emission energy generation. Other corporations are in discussions with Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish government to step into the financial and commercial hole left via the Petroineos refinery, Simmers adds. He would welcome their addition. ‘MiAlgae and ourselves don’t want to be the only ones which are doing this,’ he says. ‘This needs to accumulate momentum.’
