– The commitment to powering distilleries like Glendullan with sustainable energy, recycled from the co-products of the whisky-making process, is also exactly the right thing to do. Good for the planet, good for the whisky industry and good for the Scottish economy, said Lord Dunlop, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Scotland Office (left) on a recent visit to the new Glendullan biogas plant. Here seen with Keith Miller, Distilling and Maturation Director, Diageo Scotland and Craig Chapman, CEO, Clearfleau. Glendullan distillery commissions biogas plant Global spirits major Diageo has commissioned a biogas plant at its Glendullan whisky distillery in Speyside, Scotland. The new plant treats 1 000 m³ of liquid distillery co-products per day. The biogas produced is fed directly into a dedicated boiler producing 1 MW of heat daily for the distillery, reducing its carbon footprint. Davide Cerca Managing Director for GreenForage at UK AD & Biogas. NIR onboard analyser for biogas 26 Bioenergy Internat ional No 81, 5-2015 supplied by clearfleau, an awardwinning UK-based provider of onsite anaerobic digestion (AD) solutions for the food and beverage industry, it is the second biogas plant delivery to a Diageo distillery by the company. In 2013 it supplied an initial high-rate digestion facility at the Dailuaine malt distillery also in Speyside. The GPB 12 million Glendullan biogas plant is very similar though it also receives feedstock from two other distilleries in the Dufftown area, Mortlach Dis- tillery and Dufftown Distillery. The feedstock is fed to the Glendullan plant by pipeline reducing local truck movements by around 11 tanker trucks per day. Engineering challenges involved developing a plant able to handle higher strength materials such as pot ale, as well as the variability of strength and volume of feedstock being fed to it. The siting of the plant on a sensitive location in a valley adjacent to the river Fiddich and achieving the complex watercourse discharge standards posed extra constraints. According to Clearfleau its unique liquid anaerobic digestion system can treat liquids that contain fats and can deal with spikes in loads and flows to maximise energy output while achieving a 95 percent or more reduction in chemical oxygen demand (COD). This minimises additional treatment required for discharge of cleansed water to the river Fiddich. Initial results based on processing up to 1 000 m³ of distillery co-products on a daily basis indicate the Glendullan biogas facility is generating 2 million Nm³ of biogas per annum used directly by the distillery, producing about 8 GWh of heat as process steam. The cost benefit is threefold as it reduces the site’s fossil fuel based energy costs and co-product disposal costs while qualifying for the commercial Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). – We’re very proud of our record in investing in cutting-edge sustainable technology at our distilleries. The bioenergy plant at Glendullan is the most recent example of how we use innovative technology, which harnesses the potential of the natural raw materials we use in the distillation process to generate renewable energy, said Keith Miller, Distillation and Maturation Director, Diageo. Text: Alan Sherrard Photo courtesy Diageo BI81/4991/AS UK-based company GreenForage Ltd used the UK AD & Biogas show to launch its latest analysis solution for biogas plants, the “DG PrecisionFeeding” from the Italian firm Dinamica Generale, distributed in the UK by Greenforage Ltd. – Constant checking and management of dry matter, for example in silage feedstock for biogas plants, has long been a critical factor for plant profitability, said Davide Cerca Managing Director for GreenForage. The system is a scanner based on NIR (near infra-red) analysis technology for installing directly onto the bucket of a wheeled loader, in the scraper of a self-propelled machine, or in the feed mixer. – The system revolutionises the concept of forage analysis turning it into a daily routine: forage analysis, either wet chemistry or NIR, used to be a slow and expensive process, often undertaken infrequently it was only as good as the sample taken, Cerca said. During loading the scanner analyses the material in front of it and delivers a precise NIR reading of the various nutrients present in real time: DM, starch, protein, crude fat, ADF, NDF and ash. Once installed it does not require any technical expertise and is ready to use since there is no sample preparation. – Now it is possible to control the variability of any feed directly in the silage pit or in the field, in any type of weather and at no extra cost. The more analyses you make the quicker the cost of the investment is amortised, said Cerca. Text & photo: Alan Sherrard BI81/5003/AS Biogas
Bioenergy no 5 September 2015
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