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Caorunn gin distillery gets £3m biogas investment
Inver House Distillers, which owns Scottish gin brand Caorunn, has confirmed a £3 million investment in its Balmenach Distillery, which it says will turn it into one of Scotland’s greenest distilleries.
Work has already begun on a £3 million biogas project to significantly reduce the Speyside distillery’s carbon footprint, with Inver House Distillers commissioning 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 will integrate with Balmenach’s existing wood-pellet biomass boiler. Once complete the combined system will generate enough renewable steam and electricity to meet 100% of the distillery’s energy requirements with a surplus of electrical energy supplied to the grid.
Inver House Distillers was an early champion of green distilling in Scotland, and sustainability and consideration for the environmental impact at each of our sites is at the heart of our business strategy,” said Inver House Distillers’ managing director Martin Leonard.
“With this new investment at Balmenach we are using the very latest technology to further that commitment, working with the best partners in the business to help us achieve our environmental goals. It’s an exciting step in our journey and one that we know is recognised and appreciated, not just by the communities surrounding our distilleries, but by the drinkers around the world who enjoy our premium spirits. We also hope this investment will demonstrate how low carbon manufacture and clean growth are achievable, regardless of the size, location or output of the production site.”
The new system will also return clean water to the nearby burn, and nutrient rich bio-solids to the land for barley farming in the Speyside region.
One of Inver House Distillers’ five malt whisky plants, Balmenach is on track to produce two million litres of whisky for the blended Scotch market in 2018, and is also the home of Caorunn.