Scottish whisky giant Glenfiddich is converting its delivery trucks to run on low-emission biogas made from the waste generated during its distilling process.
The newly converted vehicles will form part of a “closed-loop” sustainability initiative that should reduce the company’s carbon footprint significantly.
“It has taken more than a decade for Glenfiddich to become the first distillery to process 100% of its waste residues on its own site, then to be the first to process those residues into biogas fuel to power its trucks,” says Stuart Watts, Distilleries Director for Glenfiddich’s parent company.
“We are proud of these renewable energy breakthroughs in our industry as we scale up the de-carbonising benefits of this closed-loop process across our entire transport fleet.”
The new fuels are expected to reduce the carbon dioxide output by more than 95% and almost completely eliminate other greenhouse gasses compared to diesel and other fossil fuels.
Each lorry, it’s claimed, will displace up to 250 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year – equivalent to planting up to 4,000 trees.
One of Glenfiddich’s biogas-powered lorries.
Glenfiddich has installed fueling stations at its Dufftown distillery, about 40 miles west of Aberdeen. This fueling station will provide the delivery lorries with biogas created from the spent grains leftover from the malting process.
Considering that Glenfiddich sells more than 14 million bottles of whisky per year, there’s likely to be plenty of fuel to go around.
The distiller has already powering three of its converted trucks with the new fuel and will continue to convert the rest of its 20 truck fleet.
Glenfiddich has also claimed that the technology could be applied throughout the delivery fleets of other William Grant & Sons’ whisky brands, as part of the whisky industry’s hopes to be carbon net-zero by 2040 – we’ll drink to that.
Keyword: We’ll Drink to That: Glenfiddich to Convert Fleet to Sustainable Biogas