Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard and maker of whisky brands including Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet.
The sharing of Chivas Brothers' design process and implementation insights is intended to put collaboration ahead of competition on the road to net zero, 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.
To date, these have reduced total energy consumption almost by half (48%) at Chivas Brothers' Glentauchers distillery, near Keith in Speyside, Scotland, reducing the site's total carbon emissions by 53% as a result.
The business' 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.
Commenting on the 'open source' move, Jean-Etienne Gourgues, Chairman and CEO of Chivas Brothers, said: "Heat recovery forms a critical part of our commitment to achieve carbon neutral distillation by 2026. Findings with such significant impact must be shared; this technology has the potential to transform our industry and accelerate its progress to net zero.
"That's why today we're making our design process and implementation learnings available to all", he continued. "As a business with a long history of innovation, we believe this is the right thing to do. Collaboration across our industry will be fundamental if we are to meet collective ambitions around sustainability, safeguarding the long-term future of our product and our planet. Understandably, this technology won't be right for every distillery, but we encourage our peers to explore whether it has the potential to reduce their own carbon output."
A case study has been published by Chivas Brothers, outlining the benefits and savings achieved, plus additional detail on the basis of design used. The business will also host a series of dedicated open house events at its Glentauchers site, creating an opportunity for other distillers to see the technology, how it has been integrated and facilitate industry learning, while aiming to demystify some of the recurring hurdles around the implementation of these technologies.
The company's recent successes in heat recovery are a continuation of its 2021 pilot programme, which achieved energy reductions of 88% on a single pot still and showcased the potential if adopted across distillery operations. The pilot programme at Glentauchers was part-funded by the Scottish Government through the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund. Industries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland can get the same support via the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.
The successes of this programme are shared with the company's supplier, Piller Blowers & Compressors GmbH, manufacturers of high-performance blowers and compressors for the process industry, whose team worked alongside Chivas Brothers to adapt its technology for distillery applications. As a result, the technology achieved a Co-efficient of Performance of 12, meaning for every 1 kwh of electricity input, 12 units of heat were generated. This level of performance is essential if the technology is to make a meaningful contribution to carbon reduction, while also delivering cost-effective improvement in energy efficiency.
The case study and basis of design is available for download via https://www.chivasbrothers.com/sustainability/open-source/
Registrations of interest to attend the Open House sessions can be lodged at the same site via https://www.chivasbrothers.com/sustainability/open-source/
