Whisky combined with driving is generally frowned upon, but in a new initiative experts in Scotland have found an innovative use for distillery by-products.

In what is a world first, a deal has been signed to turn by-products from a Scottish distillery into fuel for cars.

By linking up with Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from Edinburgh’s Napier University, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire plans to use bacteria to feed on the “leftovers” of the whisky making process. This will produce butanol that can be used to fuel vehicles.

The announcement comes as China looks to increase its investments in Afghanistan’s resources sector ahead of the withdrawal of US-led military forces from the country in 2014. In June, the two countries decided to upgrade their ties to the level of a strategic and co-operative partnership.

Increasingly, Afghanistan’s neighbours have been looking to expand their influence in the country.

Certain characteristics demonstrate ‘executive promise’ and the ability to take on an executive role—but at what price?

With competition heating up in the aerospace and defence manufacturing sector, businesses are having to completely rethink the ways in which they go to market.

Written by: Arsenin Rodriguez

The aerospace and defence sector is typically very resilient to economic downturns. Long product development and production programmes, and an often predictable order pipeline, help the industry maintain a more stable business when compared with other discrete manufacturing sectors.

The deal, said to be valued at $15.1 billion, comes after CNOOC offered to pay $27.50 per share for the company in July, a 60 percent premium on its share price at the time. Once approved the deal will be China’s largest foreign business takeover.

"The offer is a compelling one and offers benefits for all of Nexen's stakeholders, including employees and communities," CNOOC spokesman Peter Hunt was quoted as saying.

Part of a strategy by the government to counteract the loss of oil revenue following the session of South Sudan in 2011, the Sudan Gold Refinery is expected to produce more than 328 tonnes of gold per year.

According to the Reuters news agency, Sudan hopes to sell gold worth up to $3 billion this year, a figure that works out to double that of 2011’s gold revenue. The refinery, which will also process silver, is the first project of its kind in Sudan and the second in Africa for producing and extracting the two minerals with high quality and purity.

Having previously announced in 2010 that it had discovered commercially viable deposits of 2.5 billion barrels of oil in the country, Uganda has now confirmed the further discovery of an additional one billion barrels.

Through a combination of new discoveries and the ability to extract greater volumes of oil from existing wells the country’s deposits now total at least 3.5 billion barrels. To date a total of 70 out of 77 wells drilled have been confirmed as containing oil and gas.

A relatively small company is playing a big part in facilitating trade in a country with a troubled past that is gradually getting back on its feet.

‘With God on our side’ is not the official slogan of Freight Mark Services—but it could be. It certainly underlines the guiding principles of how the business operates, as explained by Mandela Katsande, the logistics manager of this Zimbabwean company. “We are a Christian-based business,” he says, “and we conduct ourselves with complete transparency and strong ethics.”

Gold Fields aims to be the global leader in sustainable gold mining. That does not mean staying in business for ever; but rather leaving behind a viable economy, a clean environment and a thriving community.