Context

Scottish whisky distilleries are subject to some of the most demanding environmental regulations in the world, particularly regarding discharge of wastewater into the local water sources.

Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown, Scotland responded to these multi-faceted challenges with an increasing focus on sustainable, chemical-free wastewater treatment techniques and technologies.

Solution

In 2016, the company commissioned 2H Water Technologies to supply the process, civil, mechanical and control aspects of a biological Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) based on BIOdek structured plastic media. With over 20 stills, 45 warehouses plus an evaporator plant, onsite cooperage, coppersmith and bottling centres and a current production capacity of 10 million litres per year, the distillery is one of the company’s – and Scotland’s – largest whisky production facilities.

The BIOdek ETP, which went live in 2017, met the customer’s requirement for a sustainable, chemical-free and efficient industrial wastewater treatment that removes biological and chemical oxygen demand from the liquid effluent to ensure wetland fauna and flora is not oxygen-deprived – and flourishes. And because it’s built from structured, modular BIOdek media, the new ETP will expand, easily and cost-effectively, to meet further increases in throughput and other changes in regulatory or operational demand.

Outcome

So effective is the BIOdek ETP that, following a routine test by an influential Scottish environmental protection agency, one of the inspectors involved declared the treated wastewater “good enough to drink!”