When it comes to the of decarbonising industrial heat, there is technology that is available and proven right now, which means that particular question can now be answered, explains Stuart Reid, head of customer solutions at AMP.
Brewing is an energy intensive process. And, while great progress has been made across the industry to reduce emissions, a big question remains – how to effectively decarbonise a sector that still largely relies on natural gas and oil for heat.
The answer isn’t straightforward. This is because a significant proportion of the sector’s emissions are a result of the high amount of energy needed for the brewing process.
Therefore, meeting significant energy demand with renewable alternatives to gas and oil at industrial scale, without significant risk or CAPEX, has historically been a critical technical barrier.
In addition, when it comes to making progress to lower emissions, brewers also need to look beyond Scope 1 and 2 consider their Scope 3 emissions – the indirect emissions generated throughout their supply chain – such as during the malting process.
That is why successful heat decarbonisation will require big, bold ideas that can easily be turned into reality.
Turning wasted wind into a decarbonisation opportunity
One example is looking at how ‘wasted wind’ – excess wind power that is effectively lost when energy generators are paid to turn off due to lack of demand or insufficient grid capacity – can be used to decarbonise industrial heat.
An issue that regularly hits the headlines, wasted wind is a particular challenge along the B6 Boundary, which is the physical boundary between the Scottish and English electricity transmission networks and broadly follows the Scotland-England border.
It is a major bottleneck as it limits the flow of wind power generated in Scotland to where it is needed in England, resulting in high curtailment costs.
It also happens to be where Simpsons Malt Limited – one of the largest independent, family-owned malting companies in the world – is headquartered.
Its Tweed Valley Maltings is the largest malting site in the UK and has the capacity to produce around 260,000 tonnes of malt per year.
As an energy intensive company – the process of turning barley into malt typically uses fossil fuels that emit many thousands of tonnes of CO2 each year – Simpsons Malt wanted to find a new way to decarbonise its malting process and cut its reliance on fossil fuels.
In addition, as the malt made at the Tweed Valley Maltings site is destined for the brewing and distilling industries, any emissions reduction would not just positively impact Simpsons Malt. It would also have an impact on its wider community, supply chain and client base, helping brewers and distillers to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.
The solution? A ground-breaking energy centre, which was developed, funded and is operated by AMP, that dramatically reduces carbon emissions from heat, reinvents energy storage and harnesses the power of wasted wind energy.
The energy centre was designed to transition the site to sustainable energy sources, tackle local grid constraints by making use of otherwise-curtailed renewable electricity, and maintain the high product quality and operational efficiency that Simpsons Malt is known for.
It uses a state-of-the-art, high-voltage 12MW electrode boiler, which is powered by curtailed wind energy, and three 6MW biomass boilers fuelled by locally-sourced, low-grade woodchip.
This trailblazing project provides a highly effective way to decarbonise industrial heat, as well as reducing compensation payments to wind energy generators by using energy that would have otherwise been wasted.
It also reinvents biomass as an effective long duration store of energy sourced from forest, urban and sawmill residues, which is readily available to use during periods of low wind curtailment.
A new era of industrial decarbonisation
For Simpsons Malt, the impact of the energy centre will see more than 140GWh of fossil fuels displaced, 25,000 tonnes of CO2 saved each year and a reduction of carbon emissions at the site by 72%.
By addressing grid constraints and optimising renewable energy use, the energy centre really does set a new standard for hard to decarbonise sectors such as the brewing and malt processing industries.
Importantly, this is a technology that is available and proven right now, meaning that the big question around decarbonising industrial heat can now be answered.
