Blend tradition and innovation.
Global engineering services firm designs
Scotland’s largest whisky distillery and
wins sustainability awards with BIM.
AECOM
Customer Success Story
AutodeskR RevitR Architecture
AutodeskR RevitR Structure
AutodeskR NavisworksR Manage
Autodesk BIM solutions
helped us to create
models at a very early
stage of the design
process. These models
helped us visualize and
refine the building’s
innovative systems
long before we began
construction.
—Nathaniel Buckingham
Principal Engineer
AECOM
Roseisle Distillery. Image courtesy of AECOM.
Project Summary
Diageo PLC is one of the world’s leading premium
beverages companies, managing many major
brands, including Guinness, Smirnoff, and Johnnie
Walker. In response to a growing global demand for
Scotch whisky, Diageo PLC recently constructed the
£40-million Roseisle Distillery in Speyside, Scotland.
To lead the design and construction process, Diageo
selected AECOM, a prominent global engineering
and architectural services firm. “Right from
the start, we knew that we wanted to integrate
the building with the processes that it housed,”
says Nathaniel Buckingham, principal engineer at
AECOM. “The challenge was to design a building
that wrapped around the complex process equipment
required to distill whisky, while maintaining
the high level of flexibility required for future maintenance
and improvements.” As the lead consultant,
AECOM delivered all non-process consultancy services,
presiding over professionals from 24 different
disciplines, including architecture. Diageo provided
all process design services in-house.
The Challenge
AECOM began work on the fast-track project in
April 2007. “Our primary goal was to deliver the
completed distillery in 22 months, from concept
through detailed design to construction,” says
Buckingham. Diageo wanted the new distillery to be
the largest in the United Kingdom, with a capacity
of 10 million liters per year. “We were also charged
with delivering a facility that blended centuries-old
distilling knowledge with advanced technical and
environmental practices.” These practices included
water reclamation, a removable roof, and an innovative
waste and heat recovery system.
To help complete the complex project designs on
time, AECOM used AutodeskR RevitR software
products for Building Information Modeling (BIM),
as well as AutodeskR NavisworksR Manage software
for clash detection. “Autodesk BIM solutions helped
us to create intelligent models at a very early stage
in the design process,” says Buckingham.
The new distillery will serve as a benchmark for the design of
future distilleries.
The Solution
These models helped Diageo representatives visualize
and refine the building’s innovative systems long
before beginning construction. “Autodesk BIM solutions
were instrumental to designing the distillery’s
complex processes and to achieving Diageo’s ambitious
sustainable design goals,” says Buckingham.
The completed distillery included many design
elements that BIM helped make possible.
Two of these features are the distillery’s removable
roof and walls. “The client was concerned about the
environmental impact of the eventual replacement
of the fermentation units,” says Buckingham. With
help from Autodesk BIM solutions, AECOM created
a unique, flexible structure that will allow Diageo to
remove the walls and the roof when the time comes
to replace the fermentation units. This involved creating
a combined 3D model of the structure, architectural
facade, building services, and processes
to help see if that the fermentation units could be
removed in the future with minimal disruption.
To reduce the building’s carbon footprint, AECOM
and Diageo designed the distillery to recover waste
heat and water from the internal distillation process.
“We also sited the building adjacent to a malting
plant from the 1980s,” says Buckingham. “That
allowed us to capture additional waste heat from
that facility.”
One of the most innovative aspects of the new
distillery is its conversion of process waste into
energy. “We were able to reuse co-products from
the distilling process to provide energy where, in
the past, these residues would be removed and used
as animal feed,” says Buckingham. Using a process
known as anaerobic digestion, the new distillery
converts the carbohydrates present in the waste
products into clean process water and methane for
a biomass boiler.
The completed distillery also includes a water reclamation
plant capable of treating liquid byproducts
from the distillery, saving approximately 300,000
cubic meters per year—roughly the equivalent of
the distillery’s annual water demand.
The Result
Roseisle Distillery commenced operations in April
2009, with the first bottles of whisky available for
release to the public in 2012. The distillery won
the 2010 Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Sustainability Project of the Year and Overall
Project of the Year. It also earned a BREEAMR
Excellent sustainable design rating. “We couldn’t
have completed this fast-track project on time and
under budget without BIM,” says Buckingham. By
using BIM and integrating the 3D architectural,
structural, and complex-process equipment models,
the team was able to better coordinate and manage
the design solution in a virtual environment. “The
result was a more coordinated, efficient, and collaborative
process.”
“Autodesk BIM solutions and Navisworks Manage
helped us minimize design time and reduce the
number of onsite clashes and requests for information
from the contractor,” says Buckingham. “This
helped provide high levels of coordination and
consistency across the project.”
“Roseisle Distillery will serve as a benchmark for
the future design of distilleries, and will influence
the way the beverage industry looks at the distilling
process,” says Buckingham. “The significance of
these innovations cannot be underestimated.”
For more information, visit
http://www.autodesk.com/bim.
Image courtesy of AECOM.
We couldn’t have completed this fast-track project on time
and under budget without BIM. Autodesk products helped
us minimize design time and reduce the number of onsite
clashes and requests for information from the contractor.
—Nathaniel Buckingham
Principal Engineer
AECOM
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Image courtesy of AECOM.