BrewDog has commissioned a green gas plant that will power the production of more than 176 million pints of beer a year at its Ellon headquarters in Aberdeenshire.
The new £12 million bio-energy plant will mean 7,500 less tonnes of carbon emissions every year when running at full capacity. Later this year BrewDog plans to begin using surplus green gas to fuel delivery vehicles, as well as helping to decarbonise the national grid.
Since its brewery in Ellon opened in 2013, BrewDog says it has reduced the volume of water it takes to make its beer by more than 50 per cent. The anaerobic digester will help the company recycle most of the 200 million litres of wastewater that is still produced annually, as well as generating bio-methane to power the brewery’s boilers.
The plant combines the wastewater with spent yeast and hops from the brewing process to be “digested” by bacteria to make biomethane. Over the coming years, BrewDog also plans to use the CO2 created by the digester to carbonate its beer.
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When fully operational, the digester will create around 200 cubic metres of biomethane per hour – equivalent to around 23,000 MWh of energy per year and enough to heat more than 1,500 homes.
The facility is part of the company's £50m investment plan to cut carbon emissions per hectolitre of beer by 35% versus its baseline in 2019.
“Our ambition is nothing short of making BrewDog beer the most planet-friendly beer on Earth, and we’ve taken giant strides towards that goal with our new bio-energy plant," said Sarah Warman, the company's director of sustainability.
“Our number one sustainability goal is to reduce emissions, and we want to lead the way for the entire brewing industry."
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