Bruichladdich Whisky Distillery And Biowayste Create Waste-To-Energy First
9 June 2011
In a first for the whisky industry, two high-rate 60m3 BioWayste reactors are generating biogas and achieving over 95 percent Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal at the Bruichladdich distillery on the Hebredian island of Islay
Prior to the reactors being installed, Islay disposed of tons of distillery waste a week into the sea, with a pipeline carrying the waste to the Sound of Islay.
The plant itself produces 46,000 12-bottle cases a year and spent £20,000 a year on ferrying waste in tankers from the distillery to the pipeline terminal.
The anaerobic digestion (AD) system has removed this cost as well as supplying 80 percent of the power the distillery requires, which cost £36,000 a year. These savings will be augmented by government subsidies for renewable power generation.
According to Bruichladdich's Managing Director Mark Reynier, the biogas and treated wastewater sets the distillery apart from other whisky producers in an industry that has long been one of the highest energy users and biggest waste producers.
"In just a few weeks", said Reynier, "the BioWayste process has proved that it is absolutely ideal for pot ale and spent lees - almost completely destroying the COD - as well as achieving over 90 percent copper removal".
The Northamptonshire-based company Biowayste Systems Limited - providers of the one of the UK's fastest anaerobic waste-to-energy processes - supplied the innovative 'small-scale' AD generators.
Unlike today's typical industrial-scale AD plants, which take around 30 days to break down a single tanker of waste, the modular, small footprint BioWayste process takes just 12-24 hours.
"BioWayste have provided us with a beautifully simple yet highly effective and environmentally sound solution." said Reynier. "The reactors are also extremely resilient to the stop-start nature of our process. When the feed comes back on after a break, gas levels are recovered very quickly indeed".
For more information visit www.biowayste.com
Darrel Moore
