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

• SIETF grant offered: £36,750
• project costs: £73,501
• study competition
• local authority area: Aberdeen City Council

Company business 

Pelagia is a leading producer of pelagic fish products for human consumption and an important supplier of essential ingredients in all kinds of fish and animal feed: protein concentrate, fishmeal and fish oil. The Pelagia facility in Aberdeen manufactures fishmeal and fish oil from fish trimmings.

Technology summary 

The project aims to study the feasibility of recovering waste heat from evaporator vapours and condensates. Recovered heat from the vapours would be upgraded using heat pumps whilst heat from condensates would be recovered via direct heat exchange and/or heat pumps.

In both cases, the recovered heat would provide hot water to a pre-cooker, with the potential to supply other on-site heat demand. The main output will be a feasibility study which will consider and/or develop the following elements of the proposed construction phase by:

• assessing the site for any physical and infrastructure constraints that could affect the practical feasibility of the project
• using techno-economic modelling and appraisal to determine the cost-benefit of the solution, which would include carbon savings including life-cycle costs and carbon savings
• logging data for evidence-based appraisal of the project

Emissions savings

The company estimates that the project, once deployed, would reduce carbon emissions by 2,114 tCO2e, energy savings by 10,568 MWh and potentially result in cost savings of £342,546 per year. These figures are based on an initial, high-level review of the site’s current energy mass balance and heat flows through the existing manufacturing process.

Andrew Giblin, General Manager of Pelagia (UK) Limited Aberdeen said: ‘As part of the journey to net zero and our continuous aim to reduce waste and improve efficiency, it is vital that we take action to utilise the identified opportunities that exist in our waste heat streams. This feasibility study will quantify the wate heat opportunities and provide evidence-based data on which equipment may be selected and installed that will lead to a reduction in fossil fuel use. The SIETF funding will help enormously to move these actions forward.’

• SIETF grant offered: £64,000
• project costs: £128,228
• study competition 
• local authority area: Falkirk Council

Company business

Ineos FPS operates within the industrial complex located in Grangemouth which is centred on a cluster of petrochemicals facilities.

Technology summary 

The project aims to further investigate the potential to recover and reprocess boil-off gas (BOG) from existing propane and butane storage tanks at INEOS FPS RLPG facility.

Currently BOG from four tanks is routed to a ground flare where it is combusted producing unwanted carbon dioxide emissions. If the BOG could be recovered and reprocessed, this would reduce the RLPG site environmental impact and cut emissions. The project proposal is to install a package to compress and cool the BOG such that it can be to be reinjected into the tanks feed stream as part of a re-liquefaction process.

The study will consider and/or develop the following elements of the construction phase of the project:

• perform sensitivity analysis on the product compositions, as this could affect the new equipment specification
• confirm whether a duty/standby compressor is required
• structural review related to pipework support and existing foundation/slab
• confirm if residual oil (<1ppm) from the compressor skid will affect the propane/butane specification
• carry out a power study to confirm the electrical scope
• confirm compressor package relief discharge can be accommodated within the existing flare system
• confirm tie-in locations onsite
• confirm tank under pressure protection requirements

Emissions savings

The company estimates that the project, once deployed, would reduce carbon emissions by approximately 21,200 tCO2e per year.

• SIETF grant offered: £1,200,000
• project costs: £2,005,000

• deployment competition 
• local authority area: The Highland Council

Company business 

Culloden Foods, trading as Harry Gow, is a Scottish bakery company established in 1979 with 18 retail shops in the Scottish Highlands and Moray.

Technology summary 

This project proposes to replace existing gas-powered ovens with electric high efficiency ‘Heuft VTR’ ovens. It will also install dough conditioning rooms which will be temperature-controlled areas for proving with installed heat recovery technology.

The project technologies are specialised for the industry and the identified suppliers and oven type is well established. The applicant has had a small trial oven of this type and tested it within their processes.

Following receipt of a SSE grid supply quotation it was established that SSEN are unable to provide the 425kVa supply for the project of replacing the current ovens until 2028 therefore a workaround to allow the project to be completed has been established.

This is to install a hybrid heat exchanger which consists of gas fired heat exchanger and the electric heat exchanger that work independently of each other. The heat exchanger will initially run on gas although the substation and cabling for the electric heat exchanger will be installed now, ready for connection as soon as the network is upgraded. The heat exchanger will utilise the electric supply as soon as the SSE network upgrade has been completed.

Work around emissions savings

The current ovens use 542,000 kWh of gas and 90900 kWh of electric as measured onsite. With transmission and distribution (T and D) losses this is 116 tCO2 emissions pa. Calculations from the oven manufacturer predicts gas usage of 433,000kWh of gas and 29200kWh of electricity. With T and D losses this is 84 tCO2 emissions per year, a 27.6% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions savings following SSE network upgrade

This project will reduce overall energy consumption on the site. Although the electricity consumption is estimated to increase by 150 MWh, gas use will decrease by 542 MWh.

The total estimated greenhouse gas saving from the oven replacement and new areas for dough conditioning with heat recovery is 66 tCO2e per year. This will be a 19% reduction in site emissions from this project.

David Gow Director at Culloden Foods Ltd said “A large part of our net zero strategy is changing our gas ovens to highly efficient electric powered ovens and dough conditioning rooms providing heat recovery. We are grateful for the support from SIETF which allows us to accelerate our commitment to this process. The implementation of this baking technology, as the first of its kind in Scotland, will allow other bakers in the country to see the benefits of this investment”.​​​​​​

• SIETF grant offered: £3,109,030
• project costs: £9,376,630

• deployment competition 
• local authority area: Glasgow City Council

Company business 

Chivas Brothers Ltd is a whisky distiller with various sites across Scotland and is part of the wider Pernod Ricard group.

Technology summary 

This project proposes to install Mechanical Vapour Recompression technology in the Strathclyde distillery which is an historic grain distillery situated on the River Clyde in Glasgow. The technology will capture and then recycle heat energy from the condenser which would otherwise go to waste using the MVR system.

This project proposes a fully designed and specialist solution which will deliver significant energy and greenhouse gas savings.

The technologies are well established within the distillery industry and have previously been installed at Pernod Ricard sites in Scotland and internationally.

Savings emissions 

The company states that this project will reduce carbon emissions for the process by more than 9,000 tCO2e per year. This is a saving of 53% compared to business as usual. In addition, this project will reduce energy usage by over 46,000 MWh per year. ​​​​​​

• SIETF grant offered: £502,911
• project costs: £1,374,080
• deployment competition 
• local authority area: Scottish Borders Council

Company business 

Eyemouth Freezers is an independent food processing company based in the Southeast of Scotland which specialises in the freezing, cold storage and packing of garden peas and petit pois.

Technology summary 

The project comprises two parts relating to the older of their two coldstores: improvement of insulation in the coldstore and the provision of a new, efficient refrigeration system.  Innovation is limited to demonstration of a high-quality insulation product and a refrigeration plant optimised for efficient operation at these conditions.

Emissions savings

Significant carbon savings of around 70 tCO2e per year are achievable by the project. This equates to 51% of the carbon emissions for this operation.

Hub Brady, Managing Director of Eyemouth Freezers Ltd, said: “We are committed to net zero and at Eyemouth Freezers and we are continuously investing in decarbonisation and energy efficiency projects to improve our sustainability performance. With the improvements to one of our cold stores and replacing old refrigeration plant with the latest efficient refrigeration with the help of IETF grant funding, we are able to significantly reduce our CO2 emissions in line with our net zero plan and commitment.”