Distillery CO₂ capture
Cork & Capture is a portable CO₂ recovery system for gin, whisky, rum and vodka distilleries. Capture biogenic CO₂ from wash fermentation, eliminate purchased CO₂ for blanketing and bottling, and turn a vented gas into Verra-certified biogenic carbon credits.
The CO₂ problem
Distillation gets the spotlight, but the CO₂ comes from fermentation. Wash fermentation in a distillery produces the same biogenic CO₂ as a brewery — and most of it is vented through the washback roof while the distillery pays for bulk CO₂ to blanket spirit, dose tonics or counter-pressure fill RTDs.
Whether you make grain neutral spirit, rum or single malt, your washback releases roughly the same biogenic CO₂ per litre as a brewery — and almost all of it is currently lost.
Distilleries still buy bulk CO₂ for tank blanketing, bottling, RTD canning and gin/tonic packaging. Capturing your own closes that loop on site.
Premium-spirits buyers — supermarket category, on-trade, export — increasingly demand a Scope 1 plan. CO₂ capture is one of the few interventions that delivers a measurable reduction.
≈ 4 kg
On-site
Verra
The solution
A portable, modular CO₂ recovery system that installs directly on your washbacks. We capture the biogenic CO₂ produced during wash fermentation, purify it to beverage-grade, and store it on site for reuse or onward sale.
No new fermentation kit, no rebuilt vessels. We deliver carbon capture at the fermentation tank — connecting to your existing washbacks, capturing the CO₂ as it is produced, and routing it to a compact on-site purification and storage skid.
Purified to ISBT beverage-grade standards. Suitable for inert blanketing of finished spirit, gin & tonic packaging, RTD canning and bottling counter-pressure.
Cuts the bulk CO₂ contract used for blanketing and packaging — and removes the supply-chain risk that comes with it. Your fermentation already produces the gas you need.
What you do not use is collected by us and either resold via our facilitated network (10% fee) or permanently sequestered. Sequestered tonnes generate biogenic carbon credits with revenue shared back to you.
A monthly subscription replaces a six-figure capital purchase. We handle install, service, gas certification and removal. You get the output without the engineering team.
Distilleries that ferment year-round get the most out of the system. We size capacity to your annual wash volume rather than a peak day.
Sustainability
From premium-spirits supermarket buyers to export agents, the question is the same: what is your Scope 1 plan? Capturing biogenic CO₂ is one of the most defensible, audit-ready answers a distillery can give.
Vented biogenic CO₂ becomes captured biogenic CO₂. Purchased fossil CO₂ falls off the procurement spend. Both moves show up cleanly in your Scope 1 / Scope 3 footprint.
Permanently sequestered surplus CO₂ generates Verra-certified biogenic carbon credits. Real removals, with real paperwork, that survive third-party audit.
Capture volumes, purity certificates and credit registrations are provided in formats that drop into supermarket sustainability questionnaires, B Corp submissions and export buyer packs.
Based in Kent · serving the UK
Cork & Capture is in Wye, Kent. We deploy CO₂ recovery systems to gin, whisky, rum and vodka distilleries across the UK — installed on site, serviced locally, and removed cleanly when needed.
FAQ
Yes. The CO₂ comes from wash fermentation — the same process that happens in a brewery. A portable CO₂ recovery system installed on your washbacks captures that gas, purifies it to beverage-grade, and stores it on site for blanketing, packaging, RTD canning or onward sale.
Roughly 4 kg of CO₂ per 100 litres of wash fermented — broadly equivalent to a brewery on a per-litre basis. A mid-sized distillery producing several million litres of wash a year is venting tens of tonnes of biogenic CO₂.
Inert blanketing of finished spirit, tank purging, bottling and counter-pressure filling, gin & tonic and RTD canning, and any other beverage-grade CO₂ application currently served by a bulk CO₂ contract.
Capturing fermentation CO₂ that would otherwise vent — and replacing purchased fossil CO₂ — produces a measurable, audit-ready reduction in Scope 1 (and Scope 3) emissions. We provide the data in the format buyers and auditors actually want.
Yes. Every batch is purified and tested to ISBT beverage-grade standards before it leaves the system. Quality assurance is built into the process.
Yes. Cork & Capture is offered on a monthly subscription with no capex. The system is sized to your wash volume, so a small distillery only pays for what it needs. See our commercial terms page for the full breakdown.
Yes. Surplus captured CO₂ that is permanently sequestered generates Verra-certified biogenic carbon credits, with revenue shared back to you. That credit revenue often offsets a meaningful portion of the subscription fee.
We work with distilleries across the UK on portable, on-site CO₂ recovery. Tell us about your fermentation profile and we’ll size a system that pays back from year one.
