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