CLEAN heat tech specialist Exergy3 has announced the commissioning of a ‘first of a kind’ decarbonised heat project at Annandale Distillery near Dumfries.
The project delivers high-temperature process heat of up to 1,200°C using low and zero-carbon electricity. This is said to represent a major breakthrough in the affordable decarbonisation of industrial heat.
The project was delivered by Exergy3 in partnership with Annandale Distillery and Cochran Ltd, supported by funding from the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero through its Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.
Annandale Distillery aims to become one of the first distilleries in the world to produce low-carbon whisky. Exergy3’s technology forms part of the facility’s 12-step decarbonisation plan, which also includes bottling and maturing whisky on site to reduce road miles, switching to electric vehicles where possible, and exploring alternative waste-reuse options for spent grain and carbon dioxide.
Professor David Thomson, co-founder of Annandale Distillery, said, “This is a first – not just for the whisky industry or Scotland, but globally. Heat-intensive industries like ours are under increasing pressure to decarbonise, and solutions that can deliver high-temperature heat without fossil fuels have been hard to find. The fact that it does so economically, while also helping tackle the rising costs of balancing the electricity system, makes it incredibly powerful.”
Exergy3’s modular thermal energy storage system converts renewable electricity into thermal energy and stores it at ultra-high temperatures. The system then discharges hot air at temperatures between 50°C and 1,200°C, depending on industrial requirements. At Annandale Distillery, the system delivers hot air of up to 530°C, which is turned into green steam by a Cochran boiler and used in the distilling process.
Markus Rondé, CEO of Exergy3, added, “We are delighted to have partnered with Annandale Distillery to decarbonise one of Scotland’s most important exports and look forward to raising a toast with the very first low-carbon whisky of its kind. Beyond whisky, our solution could halve global industrial CO₂ emissions, while being cheaper than gas and reducing rapidly rising curtailment costs that are paid for by the consumer.”
