Simpsons Malt

Ideally, North Sea windfarms operate at a constant rate of electrical generation.

Lowering their output or stopping altogether is extremely inefficient. A problem is created because the UK’s electricity grid is restricted and there are times when it cannot transmit the electricity from rural Scotland, where most North Sea windfarm power sees landfall, to the large, urban areas where it is required.

A better solution to lowering or stopping production is to find a customer who could take this electricity when necessary and the benefits to the wind producers are so great that they can not only offer free electricity but can sometime incentivise recipients.

By adding a 12MW electric boiler to their energy infrastructure, Simpsons Malt can utilise this free, renewable energy in the malting process. This overall opportunity allowed AMP Clean Energy to invest £33.5m into the Simpsons Malt facility, with Simpsons Malt purchasing heating requirements directly from AMP Clean Energy. This enabled them to completely revolutionise their energy infrastructure, whilst continuing to receive their energy at a competitive rate.

Simpsons Malt needs large amounts of heat for their kilns to turn their barley into malt. Germination & Kilning Vessels (GKVs), which is where the second and third stages of the malting process - germination and kilning - take place. Specifically, the heat is needed for the kilning process, where moisture is removed from the grains to create the finished malt product, with temperatures inside the GKV at this time ranging from 50 to 85 degrees.

As standard, this heat will be supplied by three 6MW biomass boilers which will run on local, sustainably sourced, low-grade, virgin wood chip procured by AMP Clean Energy.

At times when excess wind generated electricity is available, the 12MW electric boiler will be activated to take advantage of this.

To ensure the opportunity is optimised, if there is no heat demand when the electricity is available, the electric boiler charges thermal stores so it can be used later. This intelligent energy storage, which includes up to 1 million litres of water, ensures the system can always be utilised to take the North Sea wind electricity.

Vital Energi created an intelligent algorithm which will automatically switch between the biomass and electric boiler and ensure the thermal stores are used optimally. By making this process as efficient as possible it will not only save energy costs, but also make a further contribution to decarbonisation.

The heat generated via biomass and the electric boiler is transported through a newly installed, buried district heating network feeding two separate banks of heating coils with a total capacity of 28MW.
The air will pass over heating coils for direct use in the kilns for the malting process, turning the barley into malt, 90% of which is destined for Scottish whisky distilleries.

In theory, this was a compelling opportunity, but significant work was needed to ensure it was viable as installing the biomass and electrical boiler represented a multi-million-pound investment.

Vital Energi joined the partnership with a remit to evolve the design and deliver the project, but before that, we needed to model the energy data to predict how the system would generate and consume energy and this included how much excess energy would be available from the North Sea wind farms. To achieve this, we looked at historical data, meteorological data (wind) and created an in-depth model to predict the amount of electricity Simpsons Malt could use within the electric boiler in an average year.

Once we had established the project was viable from an energy data point of view, we evolved the design and looked at the market to identify the most appropriate electric boilers on the market.

In advance of the installation works, our team travelled to a number of European countries to undertake equipment inspections (Austria, Slovakia & Slovenia)

The Biomass Boiler equipment was transported in over 50 articulated vehicles.

By creating a partnership between Simpsons Malt, AMP Clean Energy and Vital Energi, we were able to create a technical solution that allowed Simpsons Malt to take advantage of a unique commercial opportunity.

By combining our collected knowledge of the malting process and energy markets with a technical solution designed to optimise the opportunity, we were able to capitalise on the available renewable energy and not only help Simpsons Malt take a large step on their net zero journey but also their customers in the distilling and brewing industries.