Using green hydrogen produced at our Whitelee Green Hydrogen plant, ScottishPower will be working with InchDairnie Distillery to significantly reduce the carbon emitted throughout their distilling process. By replacing natural gas with green hydrogen, the distillery can reduce its carbon emissions by an estimated 35%. Our green hydrogen will be used in a Bosch hydrogen-ready boiler to produce steam creating a very low carbon distillation process.
Located in Fife, InchDairnie Distillery brings malt whisky tradition into the modern world. From grain to bottle, InchDairnie take an innovative approach to flavour and engineer their whiskies with a strong purpose: to excite palates.
The distillery was built in 2015, with a combination of flavour and energy efficiency at the forefront of its priority list. InchDairnie has based its knowledge on the traditions of Scotch but does not let these traditions constrain it. It’s forward thinking enabled the distillery to install equipment uncommon to the Scotch Whisky industry that is important for energy efficiency and flavour.
The challenge for a whisky distiller is that today’s production of Scotch will not be sold for many years. To be a successful distiller you must learn to meet the needs of the future consumer. InchDairnie looked into the future and concluded that a key consideration for the consumer of the future, when purchasing a product, will be the product’s environmental impact. The use of green hydrogen in production will significantly lower this impact.
When InchDairnie distillery was designed, low energy technologies were at its heart, being included in the plans from the very beginning. By remaining dedicated to its three strategies – reduce, reuse, and recycle – InchDairnie used newer, innovative equipment and technologies that were much more efficient than their predecessors. The distillery designed their stills so that they recycle much of their own energy and designed the mashing plant to reuse energy from one of the wash still condensers. The distillery office uses the same source of heat, creating a self-sufficient underfloor heating system.
A primary heat source is still needed and is in the form of a natural gas steam boiler. This is very energy intensive, and traditionally has a high carbon footprint. Therefore, InchDairnie were searching for opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint at this crucial part of the process.
In preparation for their transition, InchDairnie have replaced the conventional gas boiler, with a hydrogen-ready boiler. This means that their green hydrogen supply will be used in the same way as the previous natural gas, creating steam to be used in the distilling process. The boiler will be run on 100% green hydrogen.
The InchDairnie distillery, in Glenrothes, can produce up to 4 million litres of whisky per year, and our green hydrogen will be used in producing each and every drop.
InchDairnie recognises the risk in being an early adopter of such an innovative environmentally friendly fuel but working with ScottishPower has given them confidence to progress in their green hydrogen transition.
For InchDairnie, the major benefit of transitioning to green hydrogen is that their carbon footprint will immediately reduce by approximately 35%. This is a huge reduction, creating much anticipation and excitement for the distillery.
Whitelee Green Hydrogen Plant, which will be supplying green hydrogen to InchDairnie, will be one of the first green hydrogen production plants in Scotland and is progressing as a result of the significant funding it has been awarded from the UK Government in the first Hydrogen Allocation Round at the end of 2023. This grant provides sufficient financing to make this project successful.
InchDairnie distillery will become one of the trailblazer distilleries switching to green hydrogen. Their decision to transition to green hydrogen aligns with the importance they place on responsible environmental behaviour. InchDairnie believe this is the right thing to do and hope they can encourage other whisky distilleries to take similar steps to switch to green hydrogen.