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Draft storyAt the distillery

Heat for the stills

Eddie learns that making heat from leftovers is energy recovery.

A draft: the words and pictures are waiting for an educator’s review.

Who’s in it

Meet everyone in Gullbrae

The story

In the distillery forecourt, Dougal shows Isla and Eddie a sealed jar of small brown pellets on a counter, next to a picture of a closed boiler.

Dougal showed Isla and Eddie a sealed jar of small brown pellets. This batch was kept apart for a different job: making heat.

Eddie holds an empty glass jar and looks at Dougal’s picture of a closed boiler, while Dougal explains with his hands and the pellet jar sits on the counter.

Eddie held up an empty jar. “So the heat is a recycled thing, like this?” Dougal shook his head. Heat isn’t an object you can hold.

Dougal uses a pointer on three framed pictures, a pellet container, a closed heating machine and a copper still, while Isla and Eddie listen.

Dougal traced the pictures: the pellets went to a closed heating machine, and its heat went to warm the copper stills.

In a classroom, Isla shows pictures of a closed boiler and a copper still to Dougal, and Eddie holds a closed tablet.

In class, Isla told them about a real distillery that uses a pellet boiler to make steam for its work.

For grown-ups: One Scottish distillery reported in May 2023 that it uses a wood-pellet boiler to make steam. Its separate system for liquid co-products is a different route. This is a dated, real example, not a description of how anywhere in Gullbrae works.

On a classroom counter, Isla keeps a still picture and the pellet jar on one side, while across a gap Dougal holds a grain picture and a feed store picture, and Eddie points between them.

Isla kept the pellets with the still picture. Across the gap, Dougal held the grain for animal feed. Eddie pointed. Two batches, two different jobs.

For grown-ups: The pellets and the grain are two different batches with two different destinations. Colour or shape does not tell you what a material is or whether it is suitable.

Dougal and Isla stand beside a framed picture of a closed boiler and a still, with Eddie between them making an open, understanding gesture.

Dougal gave Eddie the right words: energy recovery. The pellets made useful heat, not a new recycled thing. Eddie nodded.

For grown-ups: Energy recovery, not material recycling. A separate, suitable batch of biomass goes to professionally managed equipment, which makes heat, and that heat is passed to the distilling process. Heat is useful energy, not a new recycled object. This is not a plant design or a home instruction.

Draft, 20 October 2026. The words and pictures are not yet reviewed by an educator. The story follows the outline in our story guide.

The real-life bit

Using suitable material to make useful heat is energy recovery, not material recycling. One Scottish distillery reported in 2023 that it uses a wood-pellet boiler to make the steam it needs; this is a dated example, not a description of Gullbrae. Gullbrae is made up. Your council’s own rules are the ones to follow.

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