May 2003 

Spirits Canada members are required to comply with the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). Ontario facilities must also comply with Ontario Regulation 127/01 – Airborne Contaminants Discharge – Monitoring and Report. June 2003 is the first time that Spirits Canada members will need to assess their air emissions for Criteria Air Contaminants, determine which substances require emissions reporting, and report those emissions.

Emissions reported under NPRI and O.Reg 127/01 do not account for all air emissions that occur across Canada. These inventories include emissions from specific stationary sources only. They do not include emissions from all stationary sources nor do they include emissions from any mobile sources. This is important to note, as for some substances such as NOx, mobile sources (i.e. vehicles) can account for the majority of total emissions.

Of the more than 350 substances covered by NPRI and/or O.Reg127/01, less than 100 are relevant to the distilled spirits industry and most facilities will exceed the threshold for less than 10 of them. The majority of emissions from distilled spirits facilities stem from the combustion of fuels in boilers and engines. Our members use natural gas - the least polluting fossil fuel - as their primary fuel source and one facility has a co-generation plant. Our members also practice good maintenance procedures on their equipment to ensure that it is running efficiently.

Carbon dioxide emissions result from fuel combustion and fermentation. Carbon dioxide emitted during fermentation is part of a short-loop biological cycle, the carbon dioxide comes from grain, and is reabsorbed from the atmosphere when grain is grown for next year’s production. Consequently, the carbon dioxide from fermentation does not contribute to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Under international inventory protocols, these short-loop biological emissions do not contribute to net greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon monoxide emissions result primarily from fuel use in non-road vehicles and engines (e.g. tractors, lawnmowers, fork-lifts). Facilities practice good maintenance procedures on these engines and purchase newer, less polluting engines when the old ones are replaced.

Emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and sulphur dioxide stem entirely from fuel combustion. Our members use natural gas - the least polluting fossil fuel - as their primary fuel source and one facility has a co-generation plant. Our members also practice good maintenance procedures on their equipment to ensure that it is running efficiently.

The primary source of PM emissions is fuel combustion. Grain handling and road dust are additional sources of PM, however they are small in comparison to fuel combustion. Oil combustion produces significantly more PM emissions than natural gas combustion. Most of our members use natural gas - the least polluting fossil fuel - as their primary fuel source and one facility has a co-generation plant. Our members also practice good maintenance procedures on their equipment to ensure that it is running efficiently.

Grain dust may also be emitted from the handling of grain – the primary raw material for producing distilled spirits. Most of our facilities have control equipment that removes at least 99.99% of the PM generated from grain handling.

Vehicles travelling on facility roads cause the emission of particulate matter (i.e. road dust). Road dust emissions at our members’ facilities are mitigated through several measures including: using paved roads, low speed limits for vehicles and applying dust suppressant on unpaved roads.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted from fuel combustion and production processes at our facilities. Most of our members use natural gas - the least polluting fossil fuel - as their primary fuel source and one facility has a co-generation plant. Our members also practice good maintenance procedures on their equipment to ensure that it is running efficiently.

The primary output of our industry is ethanol (i.e. alcohol)- a volatile organic compound. A certain amount of ethanol will be emitted to the atmosphere during the production of distilled spirits. Our facilities have an intrinsic incentive to reduce ethanol emissions, as they represent a product loss (i.e. revenue loss) and facilities are required to pay excise taxes to the federal government based on their product loss. Facilities use a variety of approaches to reduce ethanol losses, including: control equipment (e.g. vent condenser), primary equipment design improvements (e.g. bottom-fill tanks), closed-loops systems and good maintenance procedures. Our members aim to reduce ethanol emissions as much as possible, while retaining the natural/biological processes which are necessary to maintain the quality and character of their end-products.