Running on whisky (well, sort of)

SCOTCH WHISKY MAKER GLENFIDDICH HAS started converting its fleet of delivery trucks to run on low-emission biogas…. made from its own whisky distilling process.

The biogas is being produced from waste products resulting from the distilling process, as part of a “closed loop” sustainability initiative, the famous whisky brand says.

The distiller, which sells more than 14 million bottles of single malt whisky a year, says its whisky waste-based biogas is already powering three specially-converted trucks that transport Glenfiddich from its Dufftown distillery to bottling and packaging operations.

The Ivecos in the Glenfiddich fleet were running on liquefied natural gas. The company says it has around 20 trucks – but the technology could be applied throughout the delivery fleets within William Grant & Sons’ other whisky brands as well.

Glenfiddich has installed fuelling stations at Dufftown, in northeastern Scotland, using technology developed by parent company William Grant & Sons to convert its production waste and residues into an ultra-lowcarbon fuel (ULCF) gas that produces minimal carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions.

Stuart Watts, distillery director at William Grant & Sons, says Glenfiddich has until now sold off spent grains left over from the malting process as a high-protein cattle feed.

But through anaerobic digestion – where bacteria break down organic matter, producing biogas – the distillery can also use liquid waste from the process to make fuel and eventually recycle all of its waste products this way.

“The thought process behind this was ‘what can we do that’s better for us all?’ ” says Watts.

The distiller says that the biogas cuts CO2 emissions by over 95% compared to diesel and other fossil fuels, and reduces other harmful particulates and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 99%. Each truck will displace up to 250 tonnes of CO2 annually, Glenfiddich says.

T&D