Water treatment plant meets tough wastewater consent limits

The Macallan owners, Edrington, commissioned the new distillery to provide a much needed increase in volume production to meet the global demand for the world famous 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. Key to the success of the project was valuable experience acquired while working on The Macallan’s previous wastewater treatment plant, plus a wastewater characterisation study prior to the design of the new plant.

The installation is based on 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 for the whisky increases. 

Edrington’s UK engineering manager, George McKenzie, is delighted: “Based on Veolia’s experience we expected to achieve a good quality discharge – certainly well within the consent limits – and that we have done”, he says. “In addition the new plant has a much higher level of automation which means reduced operator involvement.”