Chivas makes public its ‘critical’ carbon reduction technology

Scotch whisky firm Chivas Brothers has made public the design of its carbon-reduction technology, which halved energy and carbon use, to help the sector on the road to net zero.

The Pernod Richard-owned business, which makes Chivas Regal and The Glenlivet, has made ‘open source’  its data around its enhanced heat recovery technologies, after it was applied at the distiller’s Speyside site. It has reduced the total energy consumption at the site by almost half – 48% – reducing total carbon emissions by 53%.

Commenting on the move, Jean-Etienne Gourgues, chairman and CEO of Chivas Brothers, said heat recovery was “critical” to the company, and its findings were “so significant that they had to be shared with the sector”.

It shared the design and implementation of the scheme at its Glentauchers distillery, regardless of the potential of competitive advantage, as the firm said it believed distillers “must work together to create a sustainable future for Scotch”.

The heat recovery technologies, including Mechanical Vapour Recompression (MVR) and Thermo Vapour Recompression (TVR), are designed to capture and recycle heat generated in the distillation process that would otherwise go to waste. The energy saved is enough to power almost 5,000 UK homes – more than all the homes in the distillery’s town – for an entire year.

As a result of the findings, the distiller now aims to roll it out across all viable sites as part of its 2026 carbon-neutrality plans. It believes the technology will reduce overall energy across the business by a third or 30,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum, almost 70,000 UK homes.

It also said if the technology was applied across all the industry’s malt distilleries, it would save enough power for 605,000 homes a year, or all of Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

The company’s recent successes in heat recovery are a continuation of its 2021 pilot programme, partly funded by the Scottish Government, and which achieved energy reductions of 88% on a single pot still and showcased the potential if adopted across distillery operations.

Gourgues continued: “This technology has the potential to transform our industry and accelerate its progress to net zero. As a business with a long history of innovation, we believe this is the right thing to do.

“Collaboration across our industry will be fundamental if we are to meet collective ambitions around sustainability, safeguarding the long-term future of our product and our planet. Understandably, this technology won’t be right for every distillery, but we encourage our peers to explore whether it has the potential to reduce their own carbon output.”

Scottish Government Energy Minister, Gillian Martin, said: “Chivas Brothers has led the way with an innovative approach which has halved energy consumption at their Glentauchers distillery. Sharing this breakthrough with the wider whisky industry has the potential to advance efforts to reach net zero across the sector.

“Recycling heat from malt that would be the equivalent of powering all the homes in Edinburgh and Aberdeen could be a game changer for the industry, and a boost to Scotland’s economic growth while helping reach our climate change goals.”