Reduction of cooling costs associated with filtering whisky and spirit beverages

苏格兰威士忌是一个价值数十亿英镑的行业，占苏格兰食品和饮料出口的75%，占英国所有出口的1.4%，直接雇用超过11,000人(SWA，2022)。尽管在更可持续的行业和净零方面取得了进展，但整个蒸馏供应链仍有目标，特别是大量液体的加热和冷却。在威士忌包装之前，大多数产品都是从环境温度冷却到0到4摄氏度之间，并保持长达24小时。这种冷却的主要目的是强制形成雾霾颗粒，然后这些颗粒可以被过滤，从而产生更稳定的产品。产品清晰度是许多苏格兰威士忌品牌的关键质量衡量标准，达到合适的规格是产品认知度和一致性所必需的。该项目将确定新的过滤策略，在将过滤与行业内的关键可持续性目标联系起来之前，减少能源密集型冷却步骤。这些策略将利用温度的变化，并使用过滤材料(现有的和新的)来识别和了解对关键液体质量标记的影响。它将国际酿造和蒸馏中心的专业知识和设备与FILTROX Carlson Ltd.联系起来，FILTROX Carlson Ltd.是一家在这一领域拥有重要工业经验和应用的公司。与苏格兰蒸馏界建立的联系将使结果传播到整个行业，因为他们寻求实现其雄心勃勃的可持续发展目标。虽然重点主要放在威士忌上，但研究结果也对整个烈性酒行业产生了影响，大多数产品都经历了某种形式的冷滤。

Scotch whisky is a multi-billion-pound industry accounting for 75% of Scottish food and drink exports, 1.4% of all UK exports and directly employing over 11,000 people (SWA, 2022). Despite progress towards a more sustainable industry and net zero, there remain targets across the distilling supply chain, notably the heating and cooling of large volumes of liquid. Prior to whisky packaging, the majority of products are chilled from ambient temperature to between 0 and 4 C and held for up-to 24hrs. The primary purpose of this chilling is to force the formation of haze particles which can then be subsequently filtered, resulting in a more stable product. Product clarity is a key quality measure of many Scotch whisky brands and achieving a suitable specification is necessary for product recognition and consistency. This project will identify novel filtration strategies that reduce the energy intensive chilling step prior to filtration linking to key sustainability targets within the industry. These strategies will exploit variation in temperature and use filtration material (existing and novel) to identify and understand impacts on key liquid quality markers. It links the specialist knowledge and equipment of the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling with FILTROX Carlson Ltd., a company with significant industrial experience and application in this area. Established links with the Scottish distilling community will see the results disseminated to the industry as a whole as they seek to meet their ambitious sustainability targets. Whilst the focus is primarily on whisky, the results also have implications for the spirits industry as whole with the majority of products undergoing some form of chill filtration.