Optimising sustainability: circular pathways for Scotch Whisky distillery co-products

Colm Duffy; David Styles; Isabel Schestak; Kenneth Macgregor; Frances Jack; Daniel Henn; Kirsty Black; Pietro P.M. Iannetta

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136436

Optimising sustainability: circular pathways for Scotch Whisky distillery co-products

Colm Duffy^*, David Styles, Isabel Schestak, Kenneth Macgregor, Frances Jack, Daniel Henn, Kirsty Black, Pietro P.M. Iannetta

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The use of co-products for animal feed can potentially have a higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and water scarcity offset compared to bio-energy (bio-electricity/fuel) production. We cluster 136 Scotch Whisky distilleries and evaluate the co-product pathways for the production of animal-feed and/or bio-energy at centralised processing facilities. Production of animal feed, and the subsequent displacement of imported animal feed, offered the most significant GHG offset, which was between a factor of c.a. 2.5 to 8 times greater than the bio-electricity/fuel and bio-energy/feed scenarios. This offers significant potential from a global net-zero carbon emissions perspective. However, this comes at a cost to local energy security potential. Bio-electricity produced in the electricity intensive scenarios was 481 GWh per year. This would significantly increase Scotland's bio-energy production and equates to c.a. 5% of Scotland's non-commercial electricity needs.

Original language	English
Article number	136436
Number of pages	13
Journal	Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume	395
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136436
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2023
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Anaerobic digestion
Circular economy
Climate change
Consequential LCA

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136436Licence: CC BY

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title = "Optimising sustainability: circular pathways for Scotch Whisky distillery co-products",

abstract = "The use of co-products for animal feed can potentially have a higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and water scarcity offset compared to bio-energy (bio-electricity/fuel) production. We cluster 136 Scotch Whisky distilleries and evaluate the co-product pathways for the production of animal-feed and/or bio-energy at centralised processing facilities. Production of animal feed, and the subsequent displacement of imported animal feed, offered the most significant GHG offset, which was between a factor of c.a. 2.5 to 8 times greater than the bio-electricity/fuel and bio-energy/feed scenarios. This offers significant potential from a global net-zero carbon emissions perspective. However, this comes at a cost to local energy security potential. Bio-electricity produced in the electricity intensive scenarios was 481 GWh per year. This would significantly increase Scotland's bio-energy production and equates to c.a. 5\% of Scotland's non-commercial electricity needs.",

keywords = "Anaerobic digestion, Circular economy, Climate change, Consequential LCA",

author = "Colm Duffy and David Styles and Isabel Schestak and Kenneth Macgregor and Frances Jack and Daniel Henn and Kirsty Black and Iannetta, \{Pietro P.M.\}",

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AU - Duffy, Colm

AU - Styles, David

AU - Schestak, Isabel

AU - Macgregor, Kenneth

AU - Jack, Frances

AU - Henn, Daniel

AU - Black, Kirsty

AU - Iannetta, Pietro P.M.

PY - 2023/4/1

Y1 - 2023/4/1

N2 - The use of co-products for animal feed can potentially have a higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and water scarcity offset compared to bio-energy (bio-electricity/fuel) production. We cluster 136 Scotch Whisky distilleries and evaluate the co-product pathways for the production of animal-feed and/or bio-energy at centralised processing facilities. Production of animal feed, and the subsequent displacement of imported animal feed, offered the most significant GHG offset, which was between a factor of c.a. 2.5 to 8 times greater than the bio-electricity/fuel and bio-energy/feed scenarios. This offers significant potential from a global net-zero carbon emissions perspective. However, this comes at a cost to local energy security potential. Bio-electricity produced in the electricity intensive scenarios was 481 GWh per year. This would significantly increase Scotland's bio-energy production and equates to c.a. 5% of Scotland's non-commercial electricity needs.

AB - The use of co-products for animal feed can potentially have a higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and water scarcity offset compared to bio-energy (bio-electricity/fuel) production. We cluster 136 Scotch Whisky distilleries and evaluate the co-product pathways for the production of animal-feed and/or bio-energy at centralised processing facilities. Production of animal feed, and the subsequent displacement of imported animal feed, offered the most significant GHG offset, which was between a factor of c.a. 2.5 to 8 times greater than the bio-electricity/fuel and bio-energy/feed scenarios. This offers significant potential from a global net-zero carbon emissions perspective. However, this comes at a cost to local energy security potential. Bio-electricity produced in the electricity intensive scenarios was 481 GWh per year. This would significantly increase Scotland's bio-energy production and equates to c.a. 5% of Scotland's non-commercial electricity needs.

KW - Anaerobic digestion

KW - Circular economy

KW - Climate change

KW - Consequential LCA

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VL - 395

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

M1 - 136436

ER -

Optimising sustainability: circular pathways for Scotch Whisky distillery co-products

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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