INDUSTRY PROFILE - BY SANDRA DICK


New brew is making Scots hopping mad for bioenergy


IT’S THE home of the deep fried Mars bar, where haggis meets some of the fi nest seafood in the world, and where plans by Irn Bru, the so-called ‘other national drink’ to cut sugar content, almost sparked riots in the street.


There's no doubt that Scotland has a rather curious relationship with food.


It’s also a lucrative one: the nation’s food and drink is worth around £16.5bn a year and is Scotland’s biggest industry, with the whisky industry alone contributing £4.5bn to the UK economy.


But whisky also creates a large amount of waste. While the fermentation process delivers the water of life, the residue from the barley – called draff – and pot ale (the fermented wort left behind in the still), has traditionally given whisky producers a hangover from hell as they try to figure out how best to dispose of it.


Every year distilleries are left with 1.6bn litres of pot ale and 500,000 tonnes of draff ; it eats into profi ts and sits at odds with the industry’s ‘clean’ image.


But no-one can ever accuse the centuries’ old Scotch whisky industry of languishing in the past.


Embraced new world of renewable energy


Today distilleries dotted around the country, from the far north to so far south they are almost in England, have embraced a new world of renewable energy fuelled on the back of whisky waste.


The whisky industry is the biggest investor in renewables in Scotland - sitting right behind the utilities sector - with massive investment in anaerobic digestion plants.


The industry launched the fi rst environmental strategy of its kind in Scotland as far back as 2009. It revised targets last year to aim for 40% of energy used in production, to come from non-fossil fuels by 2030.


As a result, bioenergy plants have sprung up alongside some of


Scotland’s oldest distilleries – and there is a seemingly constant fl ow of plans for more.


Among the largest is Rothes CoRDe in the heart of Speyside, which takes waste from a number of distilleries and, along with wood chips, generates enough electricity to supply 9000 homes.


On a smaller scale, new plans have been announced to transform one of Speyside’s oldest distilleries, Balmenach, into one of the greenest, with a £3m AD plant that will produce methane rich biogas. Working alongside the existing wood-pellet biomass boiler, it will feed the distillery's energy requirements and have enough left to supply the grid.


Drinks giant Diageo has led the way, investing over £100m in harnessing whisky distillery co-products for renewable energy. Its new supergreen distillery at Roseisle near Elgin was developed with a £17m bioenergy and effl uent treatment plant built in. Some 50 per cent of the distillery’s power comes from renewable energy.


The company has also spent £6m at Glenlossie, which now produces 3.4MW of thermal energy to power two nearby malt whisky distilleries and their own grains plant. A further £6m has also just gone into Dailuaine for a ground-breaking anaerobic digestion technology, to treat waste water from the distillation process to generate bio-gas. The clean water can be safely discharged and bio-fertiliser sent for use by local farmers.


And the sprawling Cameronbridge distillery in Fife has seen a whopping £65m investment into renewable energy, one of the UK’s biggest from a non-utilities business.


The Scotch Whisky industry has a long-term commitment to sustainability, and a far- reaching environmental strategy


It’s clearly paying off . Glendullan Distillery in Banff shire has seen a 25% reduction in fossil fuel demand since the introduction of its AD plant.


It’s a theme that’s emerged from remote Glenmorangie distillery in Tain in the north, to a new £13m Borders Distillery in Hawick in the Borders, which includes a biogas facility to help power a steam boiler which, in turn, fuels the whisky production.


Morag Garden, Head of Sustainability and Innovation at the Scotch Whisky Association, said: “The Scotch Whisky industry has a long-term commitment to sustainability, and has a far-reaching environmental strategy to act as a focal point for producers.


“The strategy was launched in 2009 and refreshed last year as a clear sign of bold industry intentions on sustainability, and it is the only one in Scotland covering an entire industry.


“Progress towards our ambitious targets are closely monitored and where we can go further, we will.


“Scotch Whisky is a product of its natural environment and so the industry is determined to ensure that our manufacturing procedures have sustainability at their core.”


Meanwhile, innovative minds are also fi nding other uses for 12 SHM February, 2018 www.skiphiremagazine.co.uk


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