Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
16.
Natural Gas
Production
1
8
.
Effluent
Treatment
BACKGROUND
SYSTEM
17.
Electricity
Production
1.
Farm
Machinery
2.
Farm
Buildings
Site 2:
Malting
Plant
FOREGROUND
SYSTEM
Transport of
Dried Malt
10. Transport of
Barley Grain
3.
Fuel
Production
3-year
old
Scotch
grain
whisky
7.
Crop
Farming
Site 1:
Grain
Distillery
Sites 3 & 4:
Maturation
Warehouses
8. Transport of Wheat Grain
Transport of Grain
4.
Mineral
Fertilizer
Productio
n
9. Transport of Wheat Grain
5.
Seed
Production
6.
Pesticide
Productio
n
11.
Yeast
Production
15.
Caustic
Production
12.
Natural Gas
Production
13.
Fuel-Oil
Production
14.
Mains Water
Production
and the foreground (distillery and maturation).
Ozone depletion, photochemical oxidant formation
and non-renewable energy use arise mainly in the
foreground system, in the grain distillery and spirit
maturation warehouse.
Thus, with respect to the environmental impacts
considered in this LCA study, there are three domi-
nant stages in the life-cycle of the whisky system:
Fig. 5.13
'Cradle-to-gate' flow diagram of the Scotch whisky
system.
Distillation of the fermented wash draws a spirit
distillate just below 94.8% (v/v) ethanol. The new-
make grain spirit then is reduced with water and
casked. Full casks are loaded onto lorries and trans-
ported directly from the distillery to the maturation
warehouses, where spirit matures for a minimum of
3 years and usually up to 8 or 12 years. Spirit losses
by evaporation through wooden cask walls are about
2% (v/v) per year.
Figure 5.14 shows relative contributions of the
main life-cycle stages of each of the environmental
impact categories calculated according to the
problem-oriented approach in LCA [21]. It is appar-
ent that acidification, eutrophication and human and
aquatic toxicity are attributable mainly to the back-
ground system, with the largest contribution from
farming activities and the manufacture of mineral
fertilisers. Global warming is contributed to equally
by the background (fertilisers and farming activities)
(1)
Manufacturing of mineral fertilisers for applica-
tion on the arable farm.
(2)
Arable farming to produce the raw material
input to the whisky manufacturing process.
(3)
The whisky manufacturing process (particularly
cooking, distillation, by-products recovery, mat-
uration).
Therefore, LCA has helped to identify the key stages
in the life-cycle that should be targeted to achieve
the largest improvements, both in the foreground
and the background. In discussions with the whisky
manufacturers, the following improvement options
were identified:
For the background system:
