In the past we harvested resources and managed wastes. Now, and in the future, we must manage resources and harvest wastes.

• Processing Diagrams

In recent years many companies have begun to talk about concerns for the environment. At Parallel Products, the environment has been a central part of our business since inception - in 1979!

For 20 years our core business has involved the transformation of food and beverage industry residuals into environmentally-beneficial ethanol (ethyl alcohol).

Parallel Products helped pioneer the field that is now called resource management. We have been instrumental in the transition of waste management from the simple concept of disposal to the world of resource recovery - the conversion of discards into viable, beneficial and marketable products.

Each month Parallel Products produces between 500,000 and one million gallons of ethanol. Much of this product is used to replace energy from non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels. As a renewable resource, ethanol has many significant environmental benefits. For example, when used as a fuel additive in automobiles, ethanol:

• Reduces tail pipe emissions and greenhouse gases by up to 10%
• Reduces emissions of carbon dioxide - a highly toxic gas - by up to 30%
• Results in a net reduction in ground-level ozone, a major component of urban smog and a health hazard to children and adults with respiratory problems
• Helps to reduce our country's dependence on imports of foreign oil

Innovative Approach Reaps Unique Environmental Benefits
In a recent regional program, Parallel Products demonstrated a very practical way to achieve a major environmental payback to the community.

Working with an area soft drink bottler, Parallel Products first set up a system to recover discarded liquids that otherwise would have been discharged to the sewer (with possible environmental side effects). Using a combination of our ICC, fermentation and distillation processes, we transformed this residue into useful 'fuel grade alcohol' which was used to displace non-renewable fossil fuels. The resulting 'green fuel' was cycled into the local rapid transit system as a replacement for conventional fuels.

Through this approach a total of 50 municipal buses were powered by a unique and renewable fuel - fuel made from a local discard now replacing another fuel that itself would have otherwise added to the region's pollution.

Parallel Products is continuing to develop innovative ways towards managing resources; cost effective ways that will directly benefit businesses and environmentally effective ways that will benefit all of us. If you would like to learn more about how Parallel Products' ethanol recover program might benefit your community, contact our Division Headquarters

Links To Other Useful Information About Ethanol
If you are interested in learning more about ethanol may we suggest the following resources.

• The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA)
• Canada's Greenfuels Home Page
• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network (EREN)
• EIA - Renewable Fuels
• REPP - Renewable Energy Policy Project