The Ardgowan Distillery – which is about to build a flagship distillery and visitor centre near Inverkip, west of Glasgow – has pledged to be carbon negative in its operations by 2024.
To achieve this they have partnered with global distilling engineering specialists Briggs of Burton (Briggs) with the shared goal to deliver a carbon-negative distillery in 2024.
This will be achieved by creating a modular distillery, able to adapt as sustainable technology evolves.
Work starts next year on the multi-million project with a tabled completion date of late 2023.
Briggs, which designs, engineers and builds distilleries around the world, has specifically designed each part of the whisky-making process – from mashing to distillation – so that new technologies can be swapped in to ensure the distillery is equipped with the latest innovations in energy reduction, heat recovery and CO2 capture as they become available.
In June the distillery confirmed the Inverclyde project would go ahead following a new investment of £8.4 million led by principal investor Roland Grain.
Commenting on the plan, distillery CEO Martin McAdam, said:
“From the beginning, the new distillery will maximise heat recovery from all steps in the whisky-making process and will minimise water usage through the use of closed-circuit cooling loops.
“As with any distillery, the distillation process itself is a major user of heat and energy. We will work closely with Briggs to adopt technologies such as vapour recompression and heat pumps to drive a significant reduction in energy use.
“The ongoing partnership will explore new advancements in technology which can be adopted at the distillery and will deliver an increasing carbon negative impact from the commencement of operations.”
McAdam confirmed the partners will announce further low carbon initiatives in the months ahead.
The Scotch Whisky Association’s Sustainability Strategy launched in 2021 aims for the sector to reach net-zero by 2040 – ten years ahead of the UK Government’s targets. A study from the SWA published in 2020 cites that the 2018 industry emissions baseline was 528,792 tonnes CO2e/year, with 63 per cent from natural gas and 31 per cent from fossil-based fuel oils.
George Crombie, Engineering Director at Briggs, said:
“It has been great to work with the Ardgowan Distillery team on a process concept for their new distillery.
“The next phase will now see work commencing on bringing this unique vision to life. We are delighted Ardgowan Distillery are so keen to explore sustainable technologies and to build a distillery that meets their production targets in an efficient and sustainable manner.
“Building carbon neutrality along with energy and water reduction solutions is something that Briggs are keen to drive forward and are leading the way in putting sustainability at the heart of the Scotch whisky and distilled spirits industry.”
Martin McAdam concludes:
“It was important to us that the Ardgowan Distillery was not only sustainable by today’s standards, but set-up to lead the way in terms of sustainability across the industry in the future.
"We are delighted with the plans that we have designed together with Briggs and are now excited to put them into place and set a new standard for sustainable distilleries.”
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