Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions  -  November 29, 2021

Bruichladdich Distillery to Decarbonize Distillation

Bruichladdich Distillery in Scotland announced a significant step forward in its ambition to decarbonize their distillation process by 2025 by using hydrogen combustion technology.

The distillery received funding to use the technology to heat the stills used to create Bruichladdich’s Scotch, as well as their artisanal gin, The Botanist. The pilot project will demonstrate the ability to switch from fuel oil to sustainable hydrogen energy technology, a vital step towards decarbonizing in the long term. The technology operates with zero greenhouse gas emissions.

The funding of £2.65m comes from the Green Distilleries Competition, funded through the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, and follows an initial feasibility study completed in the spring of 2021. It will allow Bruichladdich, and its energy partner Protium, to install an on‐site Dynamic Combustion Chamber™, a zero-emission hydrogen boiler patented by Jericho Energy Ventures’ wholly owned subsidiary Hydrogen Technologies LLC and licenced to Protium’s subsidiary, Deuterium, as a mechanism to meet heating requirements.

Dubbed HyLaddie, the project will be installed with technology in a fully operational Victorian distillery on the island of Islay, just off Scotland’s west coast.

“Sustainability is in our DNA and is at the heart of everything we do,” said Douglas Taylor, CEO of Bruichladdich Distillery in a statement. “The funding for HyLaddie is a huge step towards our ambition of full decarbonisation and we can’t wait to bring the project to life with our partners at Protium. Many distilleries across Scotland are making serious steps forward in decarbonising their energy requirements, and we fully believe that hydrogen has a future in the Scotch industry.”

This project marks the inaugural deployment of DCC™ in the U.K. following a feasibility assessment. The technology is the only zero-emission, closed loop boiler that generates high temperature steam, using only oxygen and hydrogen that is reacted in a vacuum. The DCC™ does not require a smokestack or any other energy dissipating exhaust, eliminating any emissions of CO2, NOx and SOx. The only by-product of the reaction is water that can be recycled.