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Easter Ross distillery toasts 'virtual' gas pipeline as green drive stepped up


By Hector MacKenzie

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Bosses at Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain say the vision is to become fully sustainable.
Bosses at Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain say the vision is to become fully sustainable.

THE Ross-shire whisky-maker behind a famous dram is set to cut carbon emissions from its distillery by almost a third in a move it says will take it a step closer to a vision of becoming "a fully sustainable business".

Glenmorangie says it's the latest step in efforts in recent years to minimise its impact on the environment.

It claims to be one of the first in Scotland to use what it calls a ‘virtual gas pipeline’ to supply its Tain distillery.

This allows Glenmorangie to power its stills with the greener energy of natural gas.

The distiller has been creating whisky in the Highlands since 1843 and says it is dedicated to protecting and improving its surroundings.

In 2017, it commissioned a state-of-the-art anaerobic digestion plant to purify 95 per cent of the water it releases into the nearby Dornoch Firth. One of the plant’s by-products is biogas, which has helped reduce Glenmorangie’s fossil fuel use by 15 per cent. In tandem, Glenmorangie has led a ground-breaking project to restore extinct oyster reefs in the Firth. Reefs will improve biodiversity and filter the remaining organic matter from water released by the distillery.

Thomas Moradpour, president and CEO of The Glenmorangie Company, said: “We are committed to preserving and improving the world around us, as we meet rising demand for our exceptional single malt whisky around the globe. Cutting our CO2 emissions by 30 per cent is another important step in our quest to become a fully sustainable business.”

Glenmorangie began exploring greener ways to provide power for its signature copper stills, the tallest in Scotland. The distillery’s boiler has traditionally run on heavy fuel oil. And although natural gas is a much cleaner fuel source, Glenmorangie’s remote Highland location has always prevented it from accessing from the national network.

To overcome this challenge, the distillery will use a ‘virtual pipeline’ to bring gas to Glenmorangie. From this month, North Sea gas will be taken from the national gas transmission system, as it runs through Aberdeenshire. The gas will then be transported by tanker to a newly constructed storage facility near the distillery, before flowing into the boiler house to provide the power needed for distillation. The switch from heavy fuel oil to gas significantly reduces emissions at the distillery.

How it works:

Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain
Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain

Glenmorangie’s gas, which originates from the North Sea, will be taken from the national gas transmission network at a so-called “mother station” in Fordoun, Aberdeenshire. There, the gas is transferred into specially designed tankers under high pressure (compressed natural gas), and taken to a “daughter station” which has been constructed a few hundred metres across the A9 road from the Glenmorangie Distillery.

The daughter station, built on a disused farm site owned by Glenmorangie, includes two loading bays and gas storage. Landscaping and tree-planting is planned around the small site to tie in with existing woodland. From the daughter station, which can hold enough CNG to supply the distillery for around two-and-a-half days, the gas flows under the A9 via a pipeline. It emerges into the boiler house to feed the boiler, which has been converted from heavy fuel oil to gas.

The project has been undertaken in partnership with CNG specialists Air Liquide and CNG Services. Air Liquide will run the daughter station at Glenmorangie.

The Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project (DEEP) to restore extinct oyster reefs:

In 2014, Glenmorangie forged the Dornoch Environmental Enhancement Project (DEEP) with a vision of bringing oysters back to the Firth, where they are thought to have thrived for around 8000 years, until being decimated by over-fishing in the 19th century.

Delivered through a partnership between Glenmorangie, Heriot-Watt University, and the Marine Conservation Society, DEEP would become the first attempt to restore the endangered native European oyster to a protected area where it has become extinct. After proving oysters had existed in the Dornoch Firth for millennia, in 2017 researchers introduced the first 300 native European oysters to the water to ensure they could survive.

Then, in 2018, they used waste shell to create reefs on the seabed, and began placing the first of 20,000 oysters on the reefs. Assuming these oysters thrive, scientists will increase their numbers to four million over five years, spread over 40 hectares. At this stage, scientists believe they will have introduced sufficient numbers to create self-sustaining reefs, finally replicating those which existed in the Firth until they were fished out.

The success of DEEP promises a number of benefits to the marine environment in the Dornoch Firth. Oysters create microhabitats for other marine life, increasing an area’s biodiversity. They also filter water as they feed, soaking up nitrogen and improving the water quality (one oyster can filter up to 200 litres of water a day). Together with Glenmorangie’s anaerobic digestion plant, established reefs should help account for all the organic material in the water that the distillery releases into the Firth.

Glenmorangie’s anaerobic digestion plant:

Glenmorangie’s treatment plant is part of its long-term commitment to protecting and improving the distillery’s surroundings. Glenmorangie says it has always been fully compliant with Scottish Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for the chemical oxygen demand (COD – a measure of organic compounds in water) of the water it releases into the Dornoch Firth.

Inspired to increase its sustainability even further, Glenmorangie began to build an anaerobic digestion plant in 2015. This plant, opened in 2017, treats the distillery’s pot ale (the solids which remain after primary distillation), spent lees (residue from the spirit distillation) and washing water (the waste water used when cleaning the mash tun and washbacks.

It's claimed the plant reduces the COD of the water that Glenmorangie releases into the Dornoch Firth by 95 per cent. Within a few years, established oyster reefs will account for the remaining five per cent. The plant’s other by-products are a copper-rich sludge and biogas. The biogas is used to create steam which helps power the distillery, reducing Glenmorangie’s reliance on fossil fuels by 15 per cent. Meanwhile, the sludge, which contains copper from Glenmorangie’s signature stillsis passed to local barley farmers. It helps to reduce their reliance on fertilisers for land which is naturally copper deficient.


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