Nine projects across various industries, including food and drink manufacture and timber pallet processing, have been awarded grants from the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF) to support their efforts in reducing carbon emissions created during energy-intensive manufacturing processes.

As well as being awarded £7.2 million by the Scottish Government through the fund, another £11.8 million has come from private investment.

Among the projects in this latest round of funding is the Chivas Brothers Strathclyde Distillery in Glasgow, which will begin the use of Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR) technology, supported by a £3.1m grant.

The company claims this will cut carbon emissions from the distilling process by more than half and lower energy consumption by over 46,000 megawatt-hours annually—equivalent to powering 17,000 homes for a year.

MVR technology was already the focus of over £2 million of SIETF grants in 2022. That funding was awarded to companies including Royal DSM, a science-based firm specialising in health, nutrition, and bioscience, who utilised it to recover waste heat from evaporation processes and recycle it back into closed systems in order to reduce the demand for fresh steam.

First minister John Swinney visited the Chivas Brothers Distillery to see the new technology, saying: “Projects like the one at the Strathclyde Distillery will be essential in helping us meet our climate change ambitions and promote sustainable economic growth across Scotland – by supporting our existing energy intensive sectors and attracting the manufacturing industries of the future.

“With an average ratio of £1 of public to £1.75 of private funds, the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund has been incredibly successful in leveraging investment across industrial sites to accelerate adoption of low-carbon, energy efficient technologies.”

The Scottish Government has made £34 million available for projects through the SIETF since 2020, with match-funding from private investors to encourage industry in taking positive steps toward decarbonisation.

Decarbonising the whisky industry has become a particular concern in recent years. Last year, University of Edinburgh spinout Exergy3 landed £3.6 million from the UK Government to help a Dumfries-based distillery go carbon neutral by using excess renewable energy from the National Grid.

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Earlier this week, Storegga, a specialist in carbon capture and storage, launched a four-week consultation on its proposal for Speyside Hydrogen, a project that will produce green hydrogen to fuel operations and support the decarbonisation of distilleries and other businesses across Moray.

Regarding the latest funding, Mark Kent, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association said: “How the Scotch Whisky industry will achieve emissions reduction will be as diverse as our distilleries and locations.

“Each site will have different challenges, but through support from the Scottish Government with grants like SIETF, distilleries can accelerate decarbonisation in their own operations towards our shared industry goal of 2040.

“Innovation, collaboration and an enabling policy framework will enable us to continue to celebrate and produce Scotch Whisky for the long term.”