Isabel Schestak
This year’s International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM, 5-8 September 2021), broadcasted virtually from Stuttgart (Germany), gathered over 600 sustainability scientists and practitioners under the motto “Building a Sustainable Future Based on Innovation and Digitalization”. Research was presented which applies Life cycle thinking to a variety of areas such as bio-based materials, recycling technology, energy technologies, e-mobility, buildings and construction or urban lifestyle choices.
Dr. Auma Obama from Kenya, founder and executive director of the Sauti Kuu Foundation delivered an excellent keynote speech. She impressively contrasted (un-)sustainable eating and other daily-life behaviours of African and European societies, raising the question if we actually know when we have “enough”, no matter if in terms of food or other consumer products. The fact that trees in industrialised cities only grow on dedicated and enclosed spots on the side of the road or, that people buy soil in a store, are examples for a society detached from nature, according to Dr. Obama.
Isabel, our researcher from Bangor University, presented her research on heat recovery in distilleries in the session on “Sustainability of Business models and Innovations”, relevant to over 400 distilleries in the UK alone(1) and many more worldwide. Her study compares the potential energy, carbon and water savings achievable through three different heat recovery configurations in a distillery with the carbon, water and financial costs of the required heat recovery equipment. Based on primary data from Scottish distillery Arbikie, the research found that heat recovery can be viable from both an environmental and financial point of view. However, in order to maximise the heat recovery potential, heat and water sinks outside the distillery should be integrated in a heat recovery project.
(1) O’Connor, A., 2018. Brewing and distilling in Scotland - economic facts and figures. Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).
Many thanks to Arbikie distillery for the fruitful collaboration enabling the heat recovery study and the funders of the Dwr Uisce project for supporting Isabel’s participation in the conference!
Isabel presented her work part of the Dwr Uisce project at this year’s virtual International Conference on Life Cycle Management on the heat recovery opportunities in whisky production