Whisky distillery says its entire delivery fleet will run on ‘green biogas’

Glenfiddich lorries will use an ‘ultra-low carbon fuel gas’ made from production waste

The leading single malt Scotch whisky company says its entire delivery fleet will run on “green biogas” created from distillery residues (PA)

A Scotch whisky company has said that its entire delivery fleet will run on “green biogas” created from distillery waste.

Glenfiddich, which makes single malt whisky, said that production residues from its distillery in Dufftown, Moray, will be converted into an “ultra-low carbon fuel gas that produces minimal carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions”.

A spokesperson for the company said it has already installed fuelling stations and its adapted lorries will soon hit Scotland’s roads running on the low carbon fuel.

The technology required to convert waste into fuel was developed by Glenfiddich’s parent company, William Grant and Sons. Traditionally, Glenfiddich sold spent grains left from the malting process for high-protein cattle feed.

However, the new conversion process uses anaerobic digestion, in which bacteria is used to break down organic matter to produce biogas in order to to create fuel. Liquid waste can also be used to create the fuel, allowing the distillery to recycle all its waste products.

Stuart Watts, William Grant and Sons’ distilleries director, said: “It has taken more than a decade for Glenfiddich to become the first distillery to process 100 per cent of its waste residues on its own site, then to be the first to process those residues into biogas fuel to power its trucks.

“We are proud of these renewable energy breakthroughs in our industry as we scale up the de-carbonising benefits of this closed-loop process across our entire transport fleet.”

According to Mr Watts, the biogas reduces carbon dioxide by more than 95 per cent and other greenhouse emissions almost entirely compared to diesel and other fossil fuels.

Each delivery lorry will displace up to 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, equivalent to planting up to 4,000 trees or displacing natural gas from 112 households, he added.

William Grant and Sons plans to use the same technology across its entire transport fleet and make it available to the Scottish whisky industry “to support the decarbonisation of transport in line with UK and Scottish governments’ net zero targets”.

Scotland committed to becoming a net-zero society by 2045, five years ahead of the rest of the UK, under the Climate Change Act 2019.