Plans have been submitted to the Council for a new research centre for developing green technologies on the site of a former landfill at United Downs.
The team behind proposals for a deep geothermal rum maturation and distillery project have designed a separate ‘Celsius – Sustainable Distillery Research Centre’ on the hard edge of the former United Downs landfill site, adjacent to where Geothermal Energy Ltd will be producing zero carbon, renewable power in 2022.
Waste heat will be piped from the geothermal energy plant directly into the Celsius centre – where technology developed by Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (CGDC) and engineers Buro Happold will boost its temperature using innovative heat pump technology.
This will operate a copper still for distilling rum and a small facility to mature rum in casks – creating the template for what is claimed would be one of the most sustainable carbon neutral distillery projects in the UK.
CGDC founder, Matt Clifford, said: “Our green technologies are key to the success of future projects not just in the distillery sector but with application for enterprises to use waste heat from other industrial processes too.
“This opportunity to harness waste geothermal heat, in particular, creates a truly sustainable source of renewable power which for us is a ‘holy grail’ of technological research.”
The Celsius – Sustainable Distillery Research Centre is a separate scheme from CGDC’s Rum Cask Maturation Facility designed for another Council-owned site nearby – the outline plans for which await consideration by planners.
The Celsius Centre is a £4 million project which will have no biome or visitor centre and no public access, with six full-time distillery-related and research jobs within a simple wooden clad, sedum roofed eco-building.
