BioWayste Reactors Are Generating Biogas At The Bruichladdich Distillery

Two high-rate 60m3 BioWayste reactors are generating biogas and achieving over 95% COD removal at the Bruichladdich distillery on the Hebredian island of Islay.

In a first for the whisky industry, the biogas and treated wastewater sets the distillery apart from other whisky producers in an industry that has long been one of the highest energy users and biggest waste producers.

“In just a few weeks”, said Bruichladdich’s Managing Director Mark Reynier, “the BioWayste process has proved that it is absolutely ideal for pot ale and spent lees – almost completely destroying the COD – as well as achieving over 90% copper removal”.

He added: “BioWayste have provided us with a beautifully simple yet highly effective and environmentally sound solution. The reactors are also extremely resilient to the stop-start nature of our process. When the feed comes back on after a break, gas levels are recovered very quickly indeed”.

Unlike today’s typical industrial-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants, which take around 30 days to break down a single tanker of waste, the modular, small footprint BioWayste process takes just 12-24 hours.