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An Industry Powered by Scottish Spirit

The Scotch whisky industry has been using its by-products for several years to save money and reduce the carbon emissions of its world-famous distilleries, capturing CO2 and converting it into animal feed.


19th April 2013    |     Kate Roche: Rolton Group


In mid-2011, a new project was announced, this time involving a biomass CHP plant that would use these same by-products to create enough energy to power up to 9000 homes, creating organic soil conditioner and animal feed along the way.

That £60.5m, 8.23MW project went live this week in Rothes, making its contribution to the country’s well-publicized goal to produce all of its electricity requirements through renewable energy by the turn of the decade. Whisky is the country’s biggest export, so supplies of draff, the residue of grains post-fermentation, and pot ale, what’s left in the stills, shouldn’t run short any time soon. If this intelligent use of bioenergy is rolled out on a wider scale, many of the offshore Scottish distilleries could hugely benefit their remote communities, for whom obtaining fuel is a difficult and costly process.

The idea of using waste produce for fuel is not a new one, and the technology is deployed in various ways across the world. The crucial fact is that the whisky industry, which is itself very energy intensive, has recognized that it can use what it produces to generate more power, supporting itself in a sustainable way. Of course there have been voices of dissent, demanding to know if the woodchips used in the Rothes project will be sustainably sourced (it has been confirmed that they will be), but continually looking to find the negative in a situation can mean the bigger picture gets missed.

The new CHP plant demonstrates that the subject of cleaner energy is much broader than the dominating categories of wind, solar, and tidal; companies are increasingly turning to smaller–scale initiatives to make the most of their resources on-site. The Rolton Group has been involved for several years now in projects like this across the UK, assisting clients in their ambitions to take advantage of their assets in the same way as the Scottish distilleries. By recycling materials which would otherwise be disposed of at cost, expenses drop alongside carbon emissions, which can become quite a profitable endeavour.

With other green developments emerging from the Highlands’ most adaptable tipple, such as the technology to turn the waste from whisky production into biofuel for cars, it is clear that a little imagination can go a long way. The whisky industry is playing its part in the green transition whilst also ramping up news coverage for the technologies it employs. If they needed any other incentive, lovers of whisky will surely drink to that!


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