The first winners of the Green Distilleries competition, a £10 million funding package to help whisky makers use renewable energy sources, have been announced.

11 of Scotland’s 17 distilleries will receive funding support as part of the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) project.

Two distilleries, Benbecula and Inverkeilor, will work with renewable energy specialist Locogen and hydrogen technology expert Logan Energy to move their traditional distilling processes away from burning fuel oil or natural gas to use green hydrogen.

By converting to green energy, distilleries could cut CO2 emissions by one million tonnes, contributing to Scotland’s national target to be carbon neutral by 2050.

The Benbecula Distillery, which was announced in 2020, will be built in Gramsdale and is set to be completed in 2022 by the Uist Distilling Company. It will run by using a hydrogen burner and the indirect heating of thermal oil means it will operate more safely and cheaper than direct combustion.

Locogen and Logan Energy will investigate installing renewable energy sources to create hydrogen onsite, as well as finding markets for any excess hydrogen created.

In addition, the Benbecula Distillery will also look at launching a second Green Distilleries project. This will involve running using an electrically driven high-temperature heat store instead of fossil fuel-based oil burners.

The insulated high-temperature heat store will use electricity to raise the internal temperature of the storage medium, which can then be used as process heat. This heat can be dispatched in under one second, allowing energy to be used as flexibly and efficiently as possible.

At Inverkeilor’s Arbikie Highland Estate Distillery, Locogen and Logan Energy will assess the feasibility of switching from fuel oil to hydrogen burners to provide direct process heat for distillation.

Direct combustion of hydrogen in burners would require the retrofit of the fuel distribution and boiler systems within the distillery. The option of creating hydrogen offsite and transporting onsite will also be investigated.

Locogen CEO Andy Lyle said: “These projects combine the best of traditional skills and methods with innovative technologies to make the country’s national drink even more palatable. It seems that ‘guid auld Scotch drink’ has a great future in the new zero-carbon economy.”

Recommended

• Edinburgh MedTech firm Manus secures £1.2m investment
• Squid and jellyfish inspire Edinburgh University robot design
• Former AstraZeneca exec bolsters Eos advisory leadership team

CEO of Logan Energy, Bill Ireland, said: “Working with Locogen, the success of these projects has the potential to play a catalytic role in the adoption of hydrogen technologies across Scotland’s whisky industry.

“Ahead of this year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, these projects are a great opportunity to showcase the many non-transportational challenges that hydrogen can help solve by decarbonising one of Scotland’s most famed exports.

“By applying new technologies to traditional processes, both of these distilleries are now well placed to be at the forefront of the clean energy movement that will be vital to helping us meet our net-zero objectives.”

DIGIT’S 2021 #virtualevents calendar:

📅 #MarTech Summit https://t.co/JkViHnOzbF Wed 24 Feb
📅 ScotSecure #CyberSecurity Summit https://t.co/JaD886wGh9 24/ 25 Mar
📅 #DigitalEnergy Summit https://t.co/thGSfrBqlM 22 Apr
📅 DIGIT #Leader Summit https://t.co/alC1xjRvtW 26 May pic.twitter.com/XXGqh5Braw

— DIGIT (@digitfyi) January 18, 2021

Scotland’s traditional whisky production is a massive contributor to the country’s exports and economy. However, recent research from the University of Strathclyde found that new and digital technologies could help the whisky industry save millions of pounds.