Diageo Roseisle Distillery, Elgin.
Borehole Water Treatment Facility

Completed - January 2009

Diageo’s new malt distillery at Roseisle, is the first major malt distillery to be built in Scotland for more than 30 years. Situated between Forres and Elgin, this £40m project is one of the biggest seen in the industry.  Opened in the early part of 2009, the first mature spirit will be available from 2012.

B+W successfully installed a water treatment facility at Roseisle to exploit a natural underground water supply as product water for a new distillery and maltings.  The underground water was extracted from bore holes using well pumps.  Pilot trials indicated that levels of iron, manganese and turbidity would need to be greatly reduced prior to use as process water.

Treatment was achieved using aeration to precipitate insoluble oxides of iron and manganese which removed by conventional particulate filters.  Residual soluble metals were further reduced using catalytic media filters.  Secondary particulate filtration to reduce turbidity was achieved using bag filters.

The operation of this complete facility was fully automated and managed by a central control panel.  Following installation, this plant has continuously produced in excess of 85m3/hr of quality water for use in the distillery.