16 www.scotch-whisky.org.uk

William Grant & Sons produce some of the world’s best known brands of Scotch Whisky, including Glenfiddich, The Balvenie range of handcrafted single malts and Grant’s.

The family-owned premium spirits company was

the first Scotch Whisky producer to generate

energy from whisky by-products at its Girvan

site. The site is strategically important to William

Grant & Sons, producing grain whisky that forms

the heart of the popular Grant’s blended whisky,

Ailsa Bay Malt Whisky and Hendrick’s Gin. It

also houses offices, a cooperage and over 40

warehouses.

The ground-breaking energy initiative,

commissioned in 2009, produces power in

the form of steam and hot water for use on the

380 acre site and electricity, some of which is

exported to the grid.

The 2009 anaerobic reactor (AR) plant forms part

of the company’s five year energy management

plan which includes annual targets for site energy

reduction.

The AR plant allows the residual organic matter

in the distillery by-products to be converted into

biogas by the presence of microbes. This gas is

burned in turbines to produce renewable energy

in the form of 25MWh of heat and 60MWh of

electricity per day. This significantly reduces the

site’s reliance on fossil fuels. The scheme has

the added benefit of improving the quality of the

site’s effluent, with the chemical oxygen demand

of the site’s effluent discharge being significantly

reduced.

William Grant & Sons’ multimillion investment in

anaerobic technology and the combined heat and

waste power plant was recognised in May 2010

when it was highly commended by the Carbon

Trust’s Energy Efficiency in Manufacturing Award.

It remains the largest investment of this sort

outside of the utilities sector.

William Grant & Sons

Case study

The site at Girvan, Ayrshire

The anaerobic reactor