Scheme will be easily digestible for distillers
A solution to the current challenge facing arable growers supplying crops to anaerobic digestor (AD) plants – who find themselves banned from using the resulting returned digestate on land which grows barley crops destined for malting and distilling – could soon be on the cards.
A new Green Feedstock digestate assurance scheme, drawn together by Scottish Quality Crops (SQC), is currently in the final throes of a consultation – and is set to be launched later in the spring.
Speaking this week, Alistair Ewan, the executive director with SQC, said that it was hoped that “digestate passports” – which guaranteed that the useful fertiliser and soil conditioner left over after the AD process had been completed had come from farm feedstocks rather than commercial waste – would convince the maltsters and distillers to accept crops grown using the product.
“With estimates suggesting that upwards of 50,000 acres of arable land will be growing crops destined for AD plants by 2022, there is a real need to ensure that the resulting digestate can be used effectively and efficiently without threatening the ability of grain growers to meet the requirements of high quality markets such as malting,” he said.
“However, to date, there has been a reluctance amongst distillers and maltsters to accept grain from crops grown using this useful source of plant nutrients. For while all digestate returned to farms must meet the BSI PAS 110 industry standard, there is currently no guarantee that it comes from farm sources–a sot herb iowa st es such as supermarketsandwiches can be used in some AD plants.”
However, he said that the “simple but robust” scheme being proposed could ensure the provenance of the digestate being returned to farms – making it acceptable to the whisky industry while at the same time allowing the nutrients and conditioning elements in the product to be returned to the land and effectively recycled in line with good farming and environmental practices.
“The Scotch Whisky Association has given its support in principle to the idea, as has Sepa – and AD operators have also been relatively positive towards the proposals,” he added.
“As SQC has put some considerable work into getting traction for the new scheme, we hope that it will be up and running by the end of May or early June.”
Adding that growers should, as always, check the terms of individual maltsters and distillers contracts before making any management decisions, he said that the scheme offered a solution to what was a growing problem.