Engineers are to begin a study into how high temperature pumps can be used to heat a planned £10million rum distillery in Cornwall.
Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (CGDC), which has applied for outline permission to build a sustainable building to mature and distil rum, will use to carry out the research.
The company behind the ambitious Celsius project, at United Downs, will use the cash - the largest single award from the 海角视频 Government’s Green Distilleries Competition – to fund a study led by global engineering consultancy Buro Happold into the use of high temperature heat pumps to provide low carbon heat for the distillery processes.
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CGDC’s pioneering project involves harnessing renewable waste heat and power from Geothermal Engineering Ltd’s (GEL) geothermal power plant nearby at United Downs - the 海角视频’s first geothermal power plant.
CGDC’s Celsius rum cask maturation facility aims to be the first commercial entity to connect directly to the waste heat output from the power plant, and boost it to run heat intensive distillery processes, using an innovative high temperature heat pump (HTHP) they are developing with Buro Happold. This will make it one of the most sustainable and carbon-neutral distillery projects in the 海角视频.
The HTHP technology being developed also has the potential to be applied to different sources of low-grade waste industrial heat where geothermal heat is unavailable.
CGDC has submitted outline plans for land adjacent to GEL’s power plant, and is awaiting consideration by Cornwall Council planning committee.
If granted permission, phase one of the £10million, 30-job scheme, would start with , ahead of the construction of an ultra-high-tech cask maturation biome and visitor centre.
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The 海角视频 Government’s Green Distilleries Competition, part of the £1billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, has awarded a total of £10million to 17 initiatives in Scotland and England designed to help 海角视频 distilleries go green by switching to low-carbon fuels. This is the first phase of the Government’s funding programme, with a second phase scheduled to open in April.
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Nick Boid, associate at Buro Happold said: “This funding gives us the chance to deliver a truly pioneering and game-changing project in the industry in terms of sustainability.
“The Green Distilleries call has provided a unique opportunity to develop and showcase available commercial prospect that could really help decarbonise the distilleries sector, by proving the potential to exploit waste industrial heat and renewable power, replacing traditional sources of heat and power for heat intensive distillation processes.”
CGDC founder Matt Clifford said: “The opportunity to harness waste geothermal heat to provide a truly sustainable source of renewable power is for us the holy grail of technological research.
“As an ambitious, start-up distillery project, aiming to get everything sustainably right from the word go, we are overwhelmed and incredibly grateful to be amongst the highest beneficiaries of the Government’s Green Distillery award: it’s an endorsement and an understanding at the very highest level of what we aim to do.
“We have poured our hearts and souls into this vision which combines our absolute passion for rum with root and branch sustainability, much-needed investment and quality full-time jobs utilising local skills and businesses in this part of Cornwall.”