Celtic Renewables has secured an £11m grant to build the world's first advanced biofuel production plant from Scotch whisky by-products.

The Edinburgh-based company was one of three advanced biofuel producers to share a £25m funding prize after a competition by the Department for Transport (DfT).

The winners were announced on 07 September by Transport Minister Andrew Jones.

The funding will be used to develop a biofuel facility which will produce at least one million litres of biofuel every year.

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The plant will be operational by December 2018.

Minister Jones said: "I am delighted to announce that Celtic Renewables is one of three winners of the DfT's Advanced Biofuels Demonstration competition.

"The point of the competition was to reward companies that take low value waste and use their intellectual meat to create something of high value which also contributes to low carbon development, manufacturing and science.

"There is no better demonstration of this than Celtic Renewables; great ideas and this money will help them to put those into practice."

The two other companies which won funding in the DfT competition are Teesside-based Nova Pangaea, which produces biofuel from forestry waste, and Swindon-based Advanced Plasma Products.

(LM)