THE ARBIKIE Highland Estate Distillery's plans for a hydrogen power set-up are a major step closer to becoming reality thanks to £3 million of government funding through the Green Distilleries Competition.

That funding now goes to UK renewables company Locogen, in partnership with hydrogen technologies specialist Logan Energy, to install an onsite wind turbine and electrolyser that will generate green hydrogen, replacing the polluting oil currently used by the distillery to raise steam for the distillation process.

The Green Distilleries Competition aims to help distilleries cut their CO2 emissions by one million tonnes, contributing to Scotland’s and the UK’s national target to be carbon neutral by 2045 and 2050 respectively. Burning hydrogen does not release any carbon into the atmosphere, and therefore the Arbikie project represents a clean fuel alternative to current practices, showcasing the technical feasibility of using hydrogen as an alternative fuel in distillation and other process heat applications. It is hoped that the project will be replicable across the distilling industry, whilst acting as a catalyst for creating green hydrogen opportunities in the wider Angus area.

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Locogen CEO Andy Lyle said: “This is a fantastic result for Arbikie and presents a great opportunity to demonstrate how distilleries, and the wider process industries, can use new technologies to create cleaner, sustainable businesses.”

Director at Arbikie Distillery, Iain Stirling, added: “We are delighted to have won through to Phase 2 with Locogen and Logan Energy. We aim to be one of the world’s most sustainable distilleries so being able to use green hydrogen power will be another significant step in our sustainable journey.”

The Arbikie project will comprise a single 1MW wind turbine on the distillery's farmland, which will export the electricity generated to a green hydrogen hub via a dedicated private wire. The green hydrogen hub will be based at Arbikie Distillery and comprise an electrolyser, compressor and storage.

Green hydrogen will be created by the electrolyser and a direct pipe will take the stored hydrogen from the storage vessel to the existing plant room. A burner and boiler compatible with burning hydrogen will then be used to create steam which will deliver the heat for distillation, replacing the old gas oil system.