Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF): winners and case studies

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Argyll and Bute

Whyte & Mackay is a producer of scotch whisky. The project will take place at their distillery site at the heart of the tiny island community of Craighouse on the Isle of Jura. The only whisky distillery on the island, the project involves the installation of a steam boiler with biomass fuel burner, flue gas purification and source wood pellets from its second site in Invergordon. The technology has not yet been introduced at Whyte & Mackay.

The site does not have access to mains gas and the distillery is currently fuelled by Class D oil which is transported to the site by road, requiring two ferry crossings.

The project will enable the oil fired boilers to be replaced with a 5MW biomass boiler within the Jura distillery.

Delivery of the project will result in a reduction of 5483 tCO2e and an energy reduction from this project will be 614MWh per year. These savings will predominantly result from efficiencies in the new boiler technology. The project will bring economic and societal benefit to island and has the potential to provide lessons for other distilleries across Scotland and impact positively on the local and national food and drink industry.

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Dumfries and Galloway

Carbon Capture Scotland is a leading CO2 capture specialist, and owner/operator of Scotland’s largest CO2 capture plant. Their CO2 capture plant in Dumfries and Galloway, commissioned in 2021, was a world first and has allowed the company to pilot and research novel methods of high-purity CO2 capture.

Biogenic CO2 is captured from renewable processes and utilised in the form of dry ice, which is used for cold chain transportation in the pharmaceutical and food industries.

The project will realise the installation of multiple CO2 recovery units to recycle CO2 and to deliver savings through increased energy efficiency. The project will allow vented CO2 to be captured, recycled and fed back into the production process. This is the first time the technology has been used in the UK, and the first time worldwide that the process has been used at a combined CO2 capture and utilisation process.

The project will reduce energy consumption required to process biogenic CO2 by 52% and mitigate 10,000 tCO2e per year. Additionally, the project will remove transportation emissions associated with importing CO2, avoiding 120,000 heavy tanker road miles per year.

Carbon Capture Scotland intend to replicate the process worldwide, capturing 1 million tCO2 per year by 2030. Further capture projects are planned in Scotland, starting in 2023.

• study/deployment competition

• local authority area: North Ayrshire

Royal DSM is a global, purpose-led science-based company active in Health, Nutrition and Bioscience. The projects will take place at DSM’s manufacturing site in Dalry which produces vitamin C and vitamin B5.

DSM were awarded funding for two projects from the SIETF:

Project 1

The project involves the application of mechanical vapour recompression (MVR) technology to an evaporation process in the vitamin B5 plant. The MVR technology enables the recovery of waste heat in the vapour which is recycled back into the evaporation process thus eliminating most of the demand for fresh steam. This will provide a significant reduction in natural gas consumption, with associated CO2 emissions savings of approximately 3,200 tonnes/annum, and a fuel switch to electricity as a small electrical load is required to power the MVR.

Project 2

The project involves the reuse of waste heat from the bottom of the effluent columns in the vitamin B5 plant. The distillation column is currently cooled at the bottom with cooling tower water before the effluent is sent to the wastewater treatment plant. However, the waste heat at the bottom of the column can be used instead to preheat the feed stream into the effluent column thereby reducing steam consumption and saving approximately 520 tonnes/annum of CO2 emissions.

The projects will contribute to DSM’s GHG Roadmap 2030 targets and support DSM’s and our decarbonisation transition to Net Zero.

• deployment competition
• local authority area: North Ayrshire

UPM operates several paper mills globally and the Caledonian paper mill in Irvine, has an annual capacity of 250,000t of coated magazine paper. The technology used in this project – turbo blower pumps – are specialist pumps for the paper mill industry and will deliver significant energy efficiency and a reduction in carbon at the paper mill site in Irvine.

The project management will be handled by mill personnel who will oversee the removal of seven Nash vacuum pumps from the pump room to be replaced by the installation of three turbo blowers. These will require substantially less water cycling and electricity for the process and will reduce CO2 emissions.

Carbon savings from this project will be in the region of 2151tCO2e per year and specific vacuum system electricity consumption is projected to reduce significantly by 46%. This project will allow the Caledonian paper mill to be more competitive within the group and will protect current and future jobs.

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Aberdeenshire

Macphie is an internationally renowned family ingredient manufacturer, making a wide range of products including bread mixes and savoury sauces. The project will take place in Macphie’s existing site in Glenbervie, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire.

The project will make improvements by upgrading the boilers and steam system efficiency and by increasing the utilisation of an existing wind power connection, allowing for complete removal of a second grid electricity supply.

The upgraded boilers will have the ability to use different fuel sources in the future.

The project has estimated energy savings through transitions of 2,449,260 kWh through process steam efficiency improvements of 19% and savings from the grid removal of electricity supply (grid to wind). The project will reduce CO2 emissions by 608 tonnes per year. The project also provides a foundation for other carbon reduction phases.

• studies competition
• local authority area: Falkirk

INEOS Chemicals Grangemouth Limited’s primary activity is the production of petrochemicals. SIETF will part-fund a feasibility study to look at improving the energy efficiency of INEOS’ existing pyrolysis furnaces on its ethylene manufacturing plant through modifications to the convection banks using boiler feed water preheat, air preheat and a tertiary quench exchanger.

Ethylene ‘cracking’ is a very energy intensive process, with each of the nine furnaces requiring up to 48MW. Together they account for up to 70% of the total energy required at the plant. The study will review the technical and economic viability of redesigning the furnace convection section of the manufacturing process.

Based on 2020 data, modifying a single furnace could deliver reductions of 17,000 MWh per year and the study considers this taking place at five furnaces. With the addition of a BFW preheater there is potential, if the study moves to deployment, to reduce emissions by over 50,000 tCO2e per year.

The study aligns with SIETF aims to cut energy demand by investing in more efficient technologies. It is one of the key elements of INEOS’ roadmap towards net-zero for the Grangemouth site, which includes their plans for hydrogen generation and fuelling.

• studies competition
• local authority area: Fife

Diageo’s primary business activity relates to the distilling, maturation and bottling or packaging of alcohol. SIETF will part-fund an exploration to replace natural gas use with electric systems. The project will consider the use of electric heat pumps (high and low temperature, air, ground and water source) and direct electric heating.

The majority of process heat on site – for distillation, clean in place, or chill filtration - is currently provided by a centralised natural gas fired steam system. Technologies to be explored are electric heat pumps (air, water and ground) and direct electric heating. This study will determine whether they are feasible at the Leven site with regards to electrical infrastructure and capacity and meet commercial investment criteria.

Estimated potential energy and carbon savings of the project, if deployed, are:

• replace Steam Heating of Chill Filtration with Heat Pump/Heat Recovery: 295 tCO2e, 800,000 kWh
• electrification of Clean-in-Place system: 1,105 tCO2e, 2,400,000 kWh
• electrification of distilling pilot plant: 2.5 tCO2e, 5,000 kWh

There is also potential to provide very significant additional decarbonisation of space heating, in parallel.

The study will provide a business case to allow an internal application for capital funding for decarbonising the site’s process heating requirements. It aligns with site-wide 2030 Net Zero ambitions to decarbonise process heat.

• studies competition
• local authority area: Moray

GlenAllachie’s primary business activity relates to distilling, rectifying and blending spirits. SIETF will part-fund a feasibility study at this mid-sized malt distillery to explore the use of MVR technology to recover vapour, compress it using renewable electricity and then re-use this to heat the still in the whisky distillation process.

The business is attempting to harvest as much low-grade energy as possible and reintroduce it, with the help of MVR, to significantly reduce its demand to purchase energy. They are also working towards generating electrical requirements using renewable technology on Speyside, at Aberlour.

Like others across the sector, the GlenAllachie distillery has many nuances that contribute to character in the spirit they produce. Retrofitting new engineering technology requires these nuances to be explored. However, if MVR Technology is implemented, this would realise estimated greenhouse gas emissions savings of 550 tCO2e (with current production capacity).

This independent distillery is open to becoming a reference project or demonstration site with significant ambitions. Therefore, the study represents good sector transferability within Scotland.

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Angus

Pauls Malt is a producer of malted barley and is part of the BoortMalt Group. This project involves the installation of a hot water network with a combined heat and power (CHP) boiler to increase the overall efficiency of its kilning process.

The project will take place at Pauls Malt’s Glenesk plant in Montrose and will be supervised in-house under the existing governance structure in place. A key feature of this project is replacing steam with hot water as the principal thermal energy carrier. This will improve overall system efficiency by reducing heat losses, both from the boiler and on the thermal energy distribution system, due to the lower temperature of hot water relative to steam. Hot water networks with CHP technologies have been deployed at a number of other BoortMalt sites.

The installation of the CHP will result in a small increase in emissions at the site due to the increase in gas demand, this is however offset by the larger savings resulting from the increase in efficiency associated with the hot water network. Overall energy efficiency offered by the project would result in a reduction of 2,962 tCO2e per annum.

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Moray

Diageo is a global beverage alcohol company. The project will take place at the Glendullan Distillery, located in Dufftown in the heart of Speyside.

The project entails the installation of a high temperature heat pump (HTHP). Once installed, the high temperature heat pump (HTHP) would use hot water from both the spirit condenser and wash condenser, converting it into low pressure steam for use within the stills, creating reduced demand on the boilers and on the site as a whole. The hot water from the spirit and wash condensers would ordinarily only be hot enough for use in preheating or for discharge, where the energy would be wasted. The steam generated on site is currently from both a biogas boiler and a traditional natural gas boiler, so the HTHP would also reduce the demand on the natural gas boiler, therefore reducing the site’s reliance on fossil fuels

The project’s expected energy savings and carbon savings for the site are approximately 14% and 24% respectively with anticipated overall carbon of 793 tCO2e/year.

This project’s demonstration of the use of HTHPs in distilleries would have an important impact. There are currently no HTHPs operating at distilleries in Scotland, and Diageo would be the first to take this project on in the industry. Successful implementation could encourage other distillers to use similar technology as part of the solution to decarbonise the industry.

• deployment and study competition

• local authority area: Glasgow

Tennents Caledonian is a brewery located in Glasgow. The separate initiatives will each take place at the Tennent’s Wellpark Brewery, Glasgow.

This energy efficiency projects comprises variable speed drive (VSD) air compressors and smart air injection (SAI) for spent grain transfer.

The project involves implementing VSD air compressors used on the site to improve energy efficiency to the extent that 1.11% of site emissions will be eliminated. The project will also implement SAI for spent grain transfer to improve energy efficiency by reducing air and electricity use, such that 0.429% of site emissions will be eliminated.

For the VSD aspect, energy efficiency would be achieved by matching air supply with required air demand.

For the SAI for spent grain transfer, the technology applies dense phase conveying and periodic injection of air to replace the existing system which uses a continuous supply of compressed air during spent grain transfer, reducing the overall air consumption.

Both projects would have a combined energy saving of 576,058 kWh/year, saving 146 tCO2.

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Aberdeenshire

BrewDog is a multinational brewery and pub chain based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire and produces of over 800,000hl various craft beers per year.

The objective of the project is to aid BrewDog to become CO2 self-sufficient by 2023. This would be achieved through capturing CO2 from existing processes and enabling them to produce CO2 themselves.

The project will capture CO2 from their existing anaerobic digestion (AD) facility, which is part of the Ellon Brewery Effluent Treatment Plant (EBETP) as well as using the CO2 from the fermentation processes in the brewery. The CO2 recovery plants project will make the brewery CO2 self-sufficient rather than having to import CO2.

The gas recovery technology will reduce CO2 released directly to atmosphere. The project will reduce scope three emissions by over 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The grant funding will accelerate the project, helping BrewDog meet its goal of making the Ellon brewery carbon neutral by 2023

• deployment competition
• local authority area: Western Isles

Uist Asco is a company specialising in the harvesting and processing of natural Scottish seaweed. The seaweed is sustainably harvested for value-added global agricultural and food chain markets and manufacturing products for animals and plants.

The project will take place on North Uist in the Outer Hebrides and involves the installation of a new seaweed dryer with heat recovery to make use of heat which would ordinarily be wasted, thereby increasing energy efficiency. The project will replace the existing biomass dryer on site. The new more efficient dryer will improve efficiency and reduce CO2 consumption.

The new proposed dryer intends to avoid any considerable heat loss through a two stage drying process. The first stage involves using the recycled (lower grade) heat to begin the drying process. The second stage of drying uses the hot water from combustion of the wood chips (higher grade) to dry the seaweed to the required specification with this air then being fed back to the COND stage via a continuous process. The wood chip fuel source will remain as the primary fuel source for the boiler which supplies the drying process. Other parts of the plant rely on power from the grid.

This project will reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) at Uist Asco’s seaweed factory by increasing the effective use of heat in their dryers this will reduce the amount of fuel required to dry seaweed, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to Scotland’s Net zero policy. The total carbon savings anticipated over the lifetime of the project (20 years) have been calculated as 890.8 tCO2e (or 0.89 MtCO2e). The project will also increase throughput within the production plant enabling expanded production out of current furnaces eliminating the requirement to increase our dryer footprint in the future.