How hydrogen is changing whisky production

Posted: January 03, 2024

With the Scottish whisky sector setting itself an ambitious target of net zero by 2040, Scotland’s 150 distilleries—which export over a billion bottles of the barley-based spirit annually—are exploring ways to decarbonize the traditional process.

During the distillation process, whisky is heated to a high temperature in copper stills, traditionally through direct coal firing. In the last 60 years, indirect steam heating—powered using oil or gas—has become the standard. At the end of 2021, the UK government pledged £11 million to help the whisky industry develop new, low-carbon heating systems.^[1] With the UK’s distilleries sector having the estimated potential to cut carbon emissions by half a million tonnes every year—equivalent to taking around 100,000 cars off the road—there are big opportunities.

One of the government-funded projects, known as WhiskHy, demonstrates how low-cost green hydrogen could help decarbonize a distillery that makes 5.5 million liters of spirit each year. The Ardmore and Glen Garioch distilleries are trialing creating hydrogen onsite to manufacture a “zero carbon dioxide” whisky.

Creating hydrogen with electrolyzers

With global hydrogen demand growing, several companies are pioneering ways to make green hydrogen. We mostly produce gas hydrogen through industrial processes, creating either “gray”, “blue” or “green” hydrogen. Gray hydrogen uses natural gas in the steam reforming process and creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Blue hydrogen is the same but utilizes carbon capture and storage methods to trap the byproduct carbon. Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen created using clean electricity.

There are several ways to produce hydrogen, but the most common are steam methane reforming, and splitting water (h₂o) into hydrogen (h₂) and oxygen (o₂) through electrolysis. When electrolysis uses electricity from renewable energy, it creates green hydrogen. Most industrial use-cases require pressurized hydrogen, which also requires energy-hungry hydrogen compressors alongside electrolyzers.^[2]

Zero-carbon whisky

Beam Suntory’s Ardmore and Glen Garioch distilleries have partnered with Supercritical to create zero-emissions hydrogen onsite. Supercritical has created the world’s first high-pressure, efficient electrolyzer for hydrogen energy. The electrolyzer negates the need for hydrogen gas compressors by increasing the pressure of water going into its system, rather than the gas coming out, enabling the distillery to have a smaller electrolyzer on site, and decreasing the storage volume required for the hydrogen. For the feasibility study, Supercritical powered the electrolyzer with green electricity from the grid, but it is exploring the possibility of using local wind and solar power long-term.^[3]

Electrolyzers use around 20 to 30 liters of water to produce a single kilogram of hydrogen. In phase one of the WhiskHy project, Supercritical carried out a feasibility study to demonstrate that it could feed the distillery’s treated wastewater into the electrolyzer, meaning it did not need to use additional fresh water.^[4] The electrolyzer’s hydrogen is then used in Beam Suntory’s whisky distilling process. The distillery’s existing combustion boiler could accommodate hydrogen with minimal modifications, minimizing costs and enabling the distillery to gradually transition to hydrogen-powered distillation.

By producing and storing its own hydrogen on site, the distillery can burn hydrogen to heat the whisky in traditional copper stills, minimizing its reliance on non-renewable fuels and returning to the more traditional direct-firing distillation method. Beam Suntory believes that as hydrogen can burn to much higher temperatures than the traditional fuels—with indirect steam heating reaching temperatures of 130°C and direct firing hydrogen reaching up to 1000°C—it may even improve the taste of its whisky.^[5]

Alongside taste and emissions benefits, the new process also removes the challenges and emissions associated with transporting hydrogen to the remote Scottish locations distilleries often find themselves in.

The world’s first hydrogen-distilled whisky

In November, Beam Suntory celebrated the official casking of the world's first direct-fired hydrogen-distilled spirit, which will now be monitored and quality assessed.

Kerry McCarthy MP, Minister for Climate said in a press release: “It’s innovations like these that will secure the future of our unique British industrial heritage—putting Scottish distilleries on the map with greener production and cutting-edge technology. This celebration marks a significant step towards decarbonizing one of the UK’s largest and most important export sectors and highlights what’s possible when we invest in the clean energy transition.”

Nanoparticles for wastewater

Meanwhile, at Heriot-Watt University, two researchers have discovered another method to help distilleries make the most of their untreated wastewater, with a nanoparticle that allows electrolyzers to directly process whisky wastewater into hydrogen.

Researcher Sudhagar Pitchaimuthu, a materials scientist, discovered that coating an electrolyzer’s anode with nickel selenide nanoparticles allows it to produce hydrogen from contaminated wastewater. The team found that using the nanoparticle on industrial wastewater produced similar or slightly higher quantities of hydrogen compared to tests with freshwater.^[6] With one billion liters of wastewater produced each year by the distilling industry, the process has potential to be game-changing, enabling industry to profit from its waste.

With over 500 years of history, Scotch whisky processes have evolved with the times. But the latest innovations in whisky distillation look set to help Scotch whisky get back to its traditional roots and decrease its environmental impact, all while unlocking deeper flavors in the spirit.

References

^{[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/funding-helps-uk-distilleries-fuel-a-greener-future
[2] https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/gaseous-hydrogen-compression
[3]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/607eb8138fa8f51b909ca05a/Supercritical_Solutions_Phase_1_Feasibility_Report.pdf
[4]https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/607eb8138fa8f51b909ca05a/Supercritical_Solutions_Phase_1_Feasibility_Report.pdf
[5] https://www.power-technology.com/sponsored/green-whisky-the-scottish-distilleries-turning-to-hydrogen-to-decarbonise/
[6] https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/se/d3se01445b}