The bio-energy scheme – itself part of a wider £105M upgrade of the site – includes anaerobic digestion, biomass conversion, reverse osmosis and ultra-filtration systems.
The distillery, which produces Scotch whisky and white spirits, creates 90,000t of waste products a year, which will be used to generate 5.5MW of electricity.
The distillery effluent – a mixture of wheat, malted barley, yeast and water – is processed through a belt press to remove the biomass, which will be burned to generate heat and energy.
Second fuel
The extracted aqueous liquid is then treated in an anaerobic digester which will produce biogas to provide a second fuel for the boilers.
Veolia designed the plant with BCI Process being responsible for the stainless steel pipework linking the process plant packages and vessels.
The project is expected to generate 80% of the electricity and 98% of the steam needed to run the distillery as well as clean up the effluent discharge from the production process.
The company hopes carbon dioxide emissions at the distillery will be slashed by 56,000t a year.
Diageo’s malt distilling director Brian Higgs said: “Diageo is committed to reducing its reliance on fossil fuels and to reducing our overall impact on the environment.”