Hennessy in the process of decarbonising Cognac distillation

ennessy aims to “halve its carbon emissions by 2030”. Nathalie Meurer, Sustainability Director for Cognac’s leading company, recently explained that it was “exploring every avenue for innovation and a change in practices”.

Hennessy is focusing primarily on distillation, which accounts for 16% of its footprint. The company has just received the ‘Industry Award for Low Carbon or Renewable Energy’ from the Hydrogénies trophies at the Bordeaux convention centre for its HyD2 project, aka Hydrogen for Sustainable Distilleries, conducted in partnership with electrolyser manufacturer Bulane, based in Hérault, in the South of France.

The project was launched in 2021 and aims to support electrification of the distillation process in the Cognac industry by using hydrogen produced using renewable energy. “It is a gas that is compatible with our procedures. A significant amount of it can be injected into methane or propane to fuel the boilers in the stills without any major modifications to the equipment”, explains Felix Pouyanne-Lafuste, technical director for distillation at Hennessy.

Hydrogen does not produce any CO2 and is produced on request at the facilities through water electrolysis using green electricity, requiring no storage or transportation.

After laboratory trials, Hennessy used the gas mixed with methane in February 2022 to fuel a 12-hectolitre still. The Hennessy tasting panel validated the quality of the resultant brandies.

The Charentes-based company is planning to roll out hydrogen/natural gas hybridisation on a larger scale starting with the 2025-2026 season and has set itself an ultimate goal of rolling out the technique at its partner distillers.

Ultimately, Hennessy and Bulane are contemplating using 100% hydrogen for distillation.