Tomatin chooses Flogas for oil to gas conversion

In a move to significantly reduce fuel costs and carbon emissions, the Tomatin whisky distillery in the Scottish Highlands has chosen Flogas Britain for a conversion from oil to LPG.

The distillery, which produces over two million litres of whisky a year, is based in an off-grid location in the Monadhliath mountains. It historically relied on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and coal to meet its substantial energy requirements, which made for very high fuel costs and a large carbon footprint. With the need to reduce both, Tomatin initially introduced a biomass boiler – a fuel option previously unused in the Scottish distilling industry. However, the biomass system alone was unable to supply enough energy for the entire energy-intensive distilling process, so Tomatin was left with an inefficient, expensive and polluting 10MW oil boiler to fulfil the shortfall.

The off-grid business was keen to find an effective, efficient and economical solution – one that would break its dependence on oil. Tomatin turned to leading supplier Flogas to convert the oil boiler to LPG.

Graham Eunson, General Manager at the Tomatin Distillery, said: “We needed a replacement for our oil boiler that would be cheaper to run, reduce our carbon footprint and be easier to maintain. The whisky industry is not keen on change, and we like to reduce risk as much as we can, so we spoke to colleagues in the industry who had already switched from oil to LPG. Flogas were highly recommended, so it was an easy decision for us to work with them.”

After a full assessment of Tomatin’s unique requirements, Flogas presented a completely managed LPG conversion process. Flogas managed the installation of 12 two-tonne tanks, along with the pipework and burner installations. The tanks were located behind the distillery buildings, out of site to the general public, and the whole LPG system was installed and up and running within a week, with minimum disruption to production.

Since installing the LPG system, Tomatin has seen savings of over 15% on its fuel bills. Original estimates predicted a return on investment of between 12 months and two years, but the system is now expected to pay for itself in just one year. Tomatin is also on track to reduce its annual carbon emissions by 560 tonnes – a saving of almost 20%.

www.flogas.co.uk/distilleries