The latest from Scotland: trucks traveling on whiskey to reduce emissions

The race to drastically reduce emissions and a gradual farewell to thermal engines creates conditions that are sometimes strange and often unexpected. Like the solution found by the famous Glenfiddich distillery in Scotland, to reduce the emissions of its fleet of trucks. That is: using the residue of whiskey processing as fuel for vehicles. The idea is not crazy, on the contrary it is part of a perspective to completely reduce the environmental impact of all Scottish distilleries (parliament has decided) by 2040: a clearly achievable goal, the evaluation of the first Glenfiddich trials.

Malt grain residue

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In fact, three vehicles are regularly speeding up delivery routes for Scotland’s most favored product. The only difference is that they pollute 90% less than previously used LPG, as well as save on material disposal costs. This is because the biogas produced by the distillery and used as fuel comes from the remains of malt grains processed to obtain the whiskey. Typically, they will be partly recycled as livestock feed and partly thrown away.

supply network

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In addition to reducing CO2 emissions per truck, this solution significantly cuts the spread of greenhouse gases and other harmful products that are normally spread by the exhaust of similar vehicles. Given that only Glenfiddich Distillery has 20 trucks in service on Scottish roads, the environmental benefits are substantial. In addition, the target is to make this fuel available to competitors in the next few months. The entire system is actually based on simple points of reference located near distilleries that specifically service modified Iveco trucks at the engine level. Once more distributors and vehicles become available for delivery, there should be no hindrance for “whiskeygas” to become the standard. And if the fuel made by this method is not yet zero emission, it is certainly a panacea for the environment as compared to petroleum products like LPG. We’ll see, but it’s not madness.