Moray distillery's dramatic emissions cut prompts Chivas Brothers tech-sharing
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AFTER halving Glentauchers emissions, Chivas Brothers is to share its carbon slashing technology with other firms.
The Moray firm yesterday (July 19) announced it would make a heat recovery innovation, which cut emissions at the Mulben distillery by 53 per cent, "open source" so the entire whisky industry can benefit.
Total energy consumption was also cut by 48 per cent – which is equivalent to powering 4979 average UK homes, more than all the houses in Keith, for a full year.
Behind the savings is Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR), which captures and recycles heat generated in distillation which would otherwise be wasted.
The company has also previously embraced Thermo Vapour Recompression (TVR), which was installed at Aberlour in the 1990s.
Other whisky companies have been invited to view a case study published by Chivas Brothers, outlining the benefits and savings achieved by MVR and details of its design.
The business will also host dedicated open house events at Glentauchers to show other distillers the technology, how it has been used and to clear up remaining "hurdles" around the technology.
Jean-Etienne Gourgues, Chivas Brothers chairman and CEO, said: “Heat recovery forms a critical part of our commitment to achieve carbon neutral distillation by 2026.
"Findings with such significant impact must be shared: this technology has the potential to transform our industry and accelerate its progress to net zero.
“That’s why today we’re making our design process and implementation learnings available to all.
“As a business with a long history of innovation, we believe this is the right thing to do.
"Collaboration across our industry will be fundamental if we are to meet collective ambitions around sustainability, safeguarding the long-term future of our product and our planet.
"Understandably, this technology won’t be right for every distillery, but we encourage our peers to explore whether it has the potential to reduce their own carbon output.”
Pernod Ricard-owned Chivas Brothers, which produces Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet, plans to roll out the technology to more of its distilleries to support its emissions target.
As a result, the firm expects to reduce overall energy consumption and carbon emissions from distillation by 31 per cent, more than 30,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.
While not suitable for every distillery, Chivas Brothers estimates that if these technologies were applied by the wider industry’s malt distilleries, 1756Gwh of energy could be saved each year.
That is enough to power 605,000 average homes for a year – more than the number in Edinburgh and Aberdeen combined.
The open source announcement follows Chivas Brothers’ further MVR installations, as part of an £88 million expansion at two of the company’s strategic malt distilleries, Aberlour and Miltonduff.
Continuation of 2021 pilot programme at Glentauchers, part-funded by the Scottish Government through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which aims to support decarbonisation and energy efficiency.
Success has been shared with supplier Piller Blowers and Compressors GmbH, who worked alongside Chivas Brothers to adapt its technology for distillery applications.
Technology achieved a Co-efficient of Performance of 12, meaning for every 1 kwh of electricity input, 12 units of heat were generated.
This performance level is required to make a meaningful contribution to carbon reduction, while being a cost-effective boost to energy efficiency.
