Dedert's contribution to the Bulleit Bourbon project

1. How did Dedert contribute to the Bulleit Bourbon project? What equipment did Dedert supply?

a. What was special about Dedert’s equipment?

A global beverage leader opened its first carbon neutral distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky. The 72,000 square-foot facility has begun distilling Bulleit Bourbon using electrode boilers that are powered by 100% renewable electricity throughout the cooking, distillation, and dry house processes. Dedert’s partnering efforts with the beverage leader are contributing to its longstanding commitment to sustainability. For this project, Dedert supplied a mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) evaporator with a finisher. In this case, the finisher was forced circulation with steam. More recently, distilleries have been focusing on replacing old steam-driven evaporators with newer technologies such as the MVR evaporator. The MVR evaporator is powered by a fan and is electricity-driven, thus making it the most energy-efficient technology.

Dedert contributed to the Bulleit Bourbon project1

Dedert contributed to the Bulleit Bourbon project2

2. What is the distillation process and how does Dedert contribute to it?

The main part of a distillery plant is to make bourbon using fermentation of the grains and distillation to purify the alcohol. The distillery will add yeast to the grains to make the alcohol. This will then go through a distillation process to remove the alcohol off. A byproduct of the process is residual solids that come from the bottom of the distillation column. This byproduct is known as whole stillage that has been given to farmers in the past for animal feed. However, the bourbon market is growing and there are not enough farmers to take all the whole stillage. Instead of disposing the stillage, dry houses turn it into Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) that is eventually sold as animal feed. This makes the process sustainable because the waste material is being recycled purposefully back into the ecosystem. Dedert’s role is the evaporation of the thin stillage into a syrup that is added to make DDGS. Distillers Dried Grains are a product of renewable energy and biofuels production from corn, wheat, or other cereal feedstocks. The remaining nutrient-rich grain fractions and solubles can be used in animal feed, fertilizer, or other applications.

3. What features helped improve energy efficiency and sustainability within this project?

Dedert’s MVR evaporators are electricity driven. Relying on renewable energy sources like wind and solar was necessary for the beverage leader to achieve their goal of a carbon neutral distillery, and for continued efforts to create a low carbon future. The beverage leader relies on Dedert’s advanced designs to achieve energy optimization and efficiency. Dedert extends the time between boil outs which minimizes the amount of chemicals and allows them to run longer between cleanings. Additionally, the byproduct of the distillation process mentioned above is high in protein and can be reused and sold as animal feed, making the process very sustainable.

4. What types of equipment has Dedert supplied for other projects?

The first Bulleit plant that Dedert was involved with was in Shelbyville, Kentucky. The second project that Dedert helped with is the carbon neutral distillery that was built in Lebanon, Kentucky in 2021. Both Bulleit plants used the same MVR evaporator design, but the carbon neutral distillery required a bigger scale. Since then, Dedert has supplied another evaporator in ValleyField, Quebec. This was an already existing plant, but Dedert replaced old inefficient evaporators with a new MVR evaporator. Throughout the three different plants, the evaporator concept was the same but the sizes or configurations of each were different.

About Dedert:

Dedert Corporation is a global process technology company specializing in custom-design drying and evaporation systems. Dedert has been at the forefront of process innovations in drying and evaporation since 1968, successfully integrating a complete range of advanced liquid and powder processing solutions. Across our Chicago, Montreal, London, Copenhagen and Shanghai offices, Dedert's innovative team creates flexible, energy-efficient designs that can be developed for a wide range of applications. Visit our website to learn more: www.dedert.com.

Media Contact:

Kamilla Anayatova
Email: k.anayatova@dedert.com
Tel: +1-514-706-5878