Whiskey brand Chivas Brothers has deployed new highly efficient heat recovery technologies, reducing carbon emissions from the distillation process at its Glentauchers distillery by almost half (48%).
The Scottish business has made the learnings from its heat recovery technologies ‘open source’ in order to support other distilleries in carbon emission reduction. The move is intended to help on the road to net zero by prioritising collaboration, rooted in the belief that distillers must work together to create a sustainable future for Scotch, Scotland’s largest export.
The heat recovery technologies, including Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR) and Thermo Vapour Recompression (TVR), are designed to capture and recycle heat generated in the distillation process that would otherwise go to waste.
Chivas Brothers chairman and CEO Jean-Etienne Gourgues said heat recovery forms a “critical part” of its strategy to achieve carbon neutral distillation by 2026.
“That’s why today we’re making our design process and implementation learnings available to all,” he continued.
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The new technologies have helped towards reducing total carbon emissions at Chivas Brothers’ Glentauchers distillery, near Keith in Speyside by 53%.This represents an energy saving equivalent to powering 4,979 average UK homes – more than all the houses in Keith – for an entire year.
The business’ ambitious plans to roll out these integrations across all viable sites is part of a drive to achieve carbon neutral distillation by the end of 2026.
Chivas Brothers expects these technologies to reduce its overall energy consumption and carbon emissions in distillation by one third, which is more than 30,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum, or the equivalent of 67,226 UK homes.
While not suitable for application in every distillery, Chivas Brothers estimates that if these technologies were applied by the wider industry’s malt distilleries alone, this could equate to a saving of some 1,756Gwh per year – enough to power 605,000 average homes for a year, more than the number in Edinburgh and Aberdeen combined.
Scotland’s energy minister, Gillian Martin, said the whisky company has “led the way with an innovative approach which has halved energy consumption at their Glentauchers distillery.”
“Sharing this breakthrough with the wider whisky industry has the potential to advance efforts to reach net zero across the sector.
“Recycling heat from malt that would be the equivalent of powering all the homes in Edinburgh and Aberdeen could be a game changer for the industry, and a boost to Scotland’s economic growth while helping reach our climate change goals,” she added.
