Notice

Green Distilleries Competition: Phase 2 (Demonstration) successful projects

Updated 24 November 2021

GD143 – Locogen Ltd, in partnership with Logan Energy Limited, Arbikie Distilling Ltd

The £3 million funding awarded to Locogen, in partnership with Logan Energy and Arbikie Distillery, will finance development and installation of a green hydrogen energy system at the distillery, comprising a wind turbine, electrolyser, hydrogen storage and hydrogen boiler system.

The ‘world first’ project allows Arbikie to move away from traditional distilling processes that burn fossil fuels, instead using zero-carbon green hydrogen generated on site.

Tangible benefits of the project include a clean energy supply for distillation, resulting in greater energy security and cost savings. Arbikie will save over 4kg CO2e per litre of alcohol produced. A crucial output will be investigating the replicability of this solution to other distilleries and industries, assessing the business case and technical barriers.

The heart of Arbikie’s ethos is provenance and sustainability. It began by growing the crops and botanicals needed to distil on site. It is now conquering its energy usage, and the environmental impact of packaging and shipping.

Arbikie’s new Distillery Experience opens in 2022. The Green Hydrogen project will be showcased to private investors and developers. Finance will be sought to expand the production facility and create a regional green hydrogen hub, serving businesses across Angus and beyond.

Visit the Locogen Arbikie green distilleries site

GD155 – Supercritical Solutions Ltd, in partnership with Beam Suntory UK Ltd, Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)

Supercritical is developing the world’s first high pressure, ultra-efficient electrolyser for the production of hydrogen and oxygen from water, with zero emissions.

WhiskHy (pronounced Whisky) will see Supercritical’s technology advance from single cell scale to a multicell module which will be demonstrated and tested. Distillery partner, Beam Suntory, will trial 100% hydrogen fuel delivery to supply zero emission heat at the point of combustion to a still at one of their distilleries. Plans will be prepared for pilot deployment of Supercritical’s technology at Beam Suntory’s largest Scottish distillery where the green hydrogen will decarbonise the existing steam boiler.

WhiskHy will demonstrate the lowest cost route to a zero carbon distillery reliant only on its local natural resources. The demonstration will be the first of its kind, paving the way for distilleries and other industries across the UK and the world.

Visit the Supercritical Whiskhy site

GD166 – Colorado Construction and Engineering Ltd

Colorado Construction & Engineering Limited has, in conjunction with the University of Leeds and Clean Burner Systems, developed a novel biofuel gasification system that can help transition all direct fired and steam heated distillery operations towards total carbon neutrality.

The solution will enable distilleries to retrofit boilers with the means to gasify low-cost biofuels to replace their current legacy fuels. The gasifiers will be connected to the existing steam boilers to have a >60% thermal efficiency.

We will prove the efficacy of the manufactured gasifiers and reactive fuel burner at distillery conditions in a test rig at the Livingston Centre for Industrial Decarbonisation (LCID). The LCID has been open to the public from May 2021.

Some of the key benefits of the programme are:

• the gasifier is a practical solution for directly fired and steam heated distillation
• 100% decarbonisation of distillery power production using hydrogen and biofuels
• use of distillery waste and locally sourced biofuels from as early as 2023
• distilleries will be sheltered from increasing energy costs by utilisation of lower-cost biofuels

We intend to roll out the technology to distilleries across Scotland and England from 2023 but with demonstrations and seminars from late 2022.

GD174 – Protium Green Solutions Ltd in partnership with Energised Environments Limited, Bruichladdich Distillery Company Limited, Deuterium Heating Limited

The Bruichladdich Distillery is situated on the picturesque Scottish island of Islay. They aim to be at the forefront of decarbonising the whisky industry having set ambitions to be net zero by 2025.

There are 11 distilleries on Islay which require over 70% of the island’s energy demand, currently the distillation process operates using fossil fuels, resulting in Islay having one of the highest emissions per capita in the UK.

During demonstration phase, the HyLaddie project aims to prove a technically feasible, and commercially viable pathway for the Bruichladdich distillery to fully decarbonise their heating requirements using green hydrogen. Renewable grid electricity will be used to power the system and assess the technology, with it running in isolation to the existing thermal process to create a real zero emission distillation process and, therefore, the world’s first truly zero emissions whisky.

Once the system has been demonstrated, we plan to scale-up for commercial operation at Bruichladdich. Meanwhile, we plan to deploy the proven technology across Islay’s many other distilleries.

For large scale green hydrogen production and island-wide decarbonisation, we will explore dedicated renewable power generation. This will provide the green electricity to produce green hydrogen at a scale which can supply the Island’s distilling industry, as well as other offtakers.

Visit the Protium Green Solutions website.