Macallan owners, Edrington, commissioned the new distillery to expand its production and meet increased demand for Macallan single malt whisky. The distillery needed an enhanced wastewater plant on site to meet the SEPA regulations for discharge into the environmentally sensitive River Spey.
Veolia had already gained valuable experience while working on Macallan’s previous wastewater treatment plant and the company carried out a wastewater characterisation study prior to the design of the new plant.
The installation is based on the Idraflot dissolved air flotation (DAF) unit followed by a Biosep membrane bioreactor (MBR). The water treatment plant has built in future proofing and can be easily upgraded as demand increases.
Edrington said that based on Veolia’s experience, the company had expected to achieve a good quality discharge well within the consent limits and that has been achieved. In addition the new plant has a much higher level of automation which means reduced operator involvement.
