Suntory Global Spirits has been hit by a setback to its decarbonisation efforts in Scotland, where a plan to use hydrogen to power its Auchentoshan distillery has been shelved.
The project, titled ‘HyClyde Auchentoshan’, had intended to construct a “small-scale hydrogen plant” near the Lowland-based scotch whisky distillery. In August last year, Suntory Global Spirits and its partner, Marubeni Europower, commenced informal consultation proceedings on the move that would have made Auchentoshan “one of the first distilleries in Scotland to be powered by green hydrogen”.
Last week, however, the two companies confirmed that their joint funding application to the UK Government, through its Hydrogen Allocation Round 2 decarbonisation fund, had been “unsuccessful”.
“As a result,” the pair said, “the project will be discontinued.
“Whilst Suntory Global Spirits and Marubeni are disappointed in this outcome, we would like to thank our local community again for their input and feedback during our community consultation events.”
In April last year, SGS hailed the success of a separate trial, ‘Project WhiskHy’, which utilised hydrogen for one of its distilleries in Japan. The spirit produced in the pilot was shipped to another facility in Scotland, GlenGarioch distillery, “where it will be quality assessed as it matures”.
As well as Auchentoshan and GlenGarioch, SGS also owns the Bowmore, Laphroaig and Ardmore single malts alongside blended malts Ardray and Teacher’s.
