With diesel prices heading skywards, global tensions on the increase, and last year's fuel shortages in southeast England still fresh in everybody's memory, many fleet managers must ache for a source of power that is independent of these vagaries. If it is environmentally friendly and generated from a sustainable source of materials over which they have some control, then so much the better. If it allows their trucks to cover respectable distances without being encumbered by heavy battery packs, then that is better still. Legendary Scottish malt whisky distillery Glenfiddich may have found the answer. Owned by independent family-owned distillery William Grant & Sons (WG&S), it is running trucks on biogas made from byproducts of the distilling process: spent grain, known as draff, and pot ale, the residue from fermented mash liquid. The waste is loaded into an anaerobic digester, bacteria without oxygen break it down, and biogas is the consequence. Proprietary compression and dispensing facilities have been installed, and the entire exercise has been cost-neutral, says the company.
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