SCOTLAND: Diageo, the market leader in scotch whiskey, is to spend £65 million (€80 million) on a bio-energy plant at its largest distillery in a move that will turn 90,000 tonnes of "spent wash" from the production process into steam and electrical power.
The drinks group, which makes Johnnie Walker, Bell's and J&B, believes the facility at its Cameronbridge distillery in Fife will be the largest single investment in renewable technology by a non-utility company in the UK. It says the plant will generate 6.5MW of electrical power and 20MW of thermal power, which is enough to heat 12,000 homes.
Spent wash - a mixture of wheat, malted barley, yeast and water - is currently drained and sold to local farmers as wet cattle feed. The remaining liquid is piped out into the firth of Forth. Once the new plant is operational, spent wash will be separated into liquid and solids. The liquid will be converted, through an anaerobic digestion process, into biogas. The dried solids form a biomass fuel. Together they will be used to provide 98 per cent of the thermal steam and 80 per cent of electrical power used at the distillery. The facility will also recover about a third of the water requirements of the Diageo facility.
- Guardian
