Green delivery trucks are green in colour as well as emissions
No, officer, it’s my tailpipe. I swear
This time you can have one for the road. A Scotch whisky maker is turning waste from the distilling process into fuel for its delivery trucks. The new process reduces waste, cuts emissions, and gives the trucks exhaust notes that are slightly floral with hints of orchard fruit, oak, and a touch of peat.
Ok, that last part isn’t accurate, but the rest is. Distiller Glenfiddich has started to convert its delivery trucks to run on biogas that is made from the waste products resulting from its distilling and malting.
The company has even installed filling stations at its Dufftown distillery to provide the ultra-low carbon fuel for a portion of its 20 truck fleet.
Previously, the company sold waste grains as high-grade cattle feed. Now, using an anaerobic digestion process (where bacteria break down organic matter to produce the gas) developed by parent company William Grant & Sons, the distillery can instead potentially use all of its waste products as fuel.
“The thought process behind this was ‘what can we do that’s better for us all?’,” said distillery director Stuart Watts (via Reuters).
With three trucks already using the fuel, the distiller said that the fuel cuts CO2 emissions by over 95 percent compared with diesel and reduces particulates up to 99 percent. That’s 250 tonnes of CO2 per year saved by the three trucks, which could expand if the company is able to fill more vehicles with this fine tipple. The Scotch Scotch industry is working to become carbon net-zero by 2040.
