Balmenach received £3m 'green' investment
Inver House Distillers has invested £3m in a biogas project at Balmenach – the home of Caorunn gin, as part of a strategy to reduce ithe distillery’s carbon footpring and make it one of the greenest in Scotland.
The investment includes installation of a new anaerobic digestion system, which breaks down the co-products of whisky production using micro-organisms to produce clean, methane-rich biogas to power the site.
The new technology would integrate with Balmenach’s existing wood-pellet biomass boiler, and once complete, the combined system would generate enough renewable steam and electricity to meet 100% of Balmenach’s energy requirements with a surplus of electrical energy supplied to the grid, said MD Martin Leonard.
“With this new investment at Balmenach we are using the very latest technology to further our environmental commitment, working with the best partners in the business to help us achieve our green goals,” he said, adding as an early champion of green distilling in Scotland, sustainability and consideration for the environmental impact at each of Inver House’s sites were at the heart of its business strategy.
In addition to the benefits of reduced emissions, improved energy efficiency and reduced operational costs, Balmenach’s use of the new system would significantly reduce heavy goods vehicle movements from its remote location in the Spey Valley, said Leonard, while also returning clean water to the nearby burn, and nutrient rich bio-solids to the land for barley farming in the Speyside region.
Located near Grantown on Spey and one of Inver House Distillers’ five malt whisky plants, Balmenach is on track to produce 2 million litres of whisky for the blended Scotch market in 2018.
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