Working with malting industry partners (Boortmalt, MakersMalt), the study will assess baseline GHG emissions associated with malt production in Canada, as well as the mitigation potential of efficiency measures and alternative malting strategies. Specifically, the work will benchmark energy and water use, as well as all other relevant inputs/outputs, at each step of the malting process based on current production practices, and evaluate the efficiency of different malt processing systems currently employed or available for commercial malt production. Data will be collected directly from participating facilities at the process level, as well as based on total annual throughput. Where direct data collection is not feasible, process simulation modelling will be used based on equipment/process technical specification data. The models will subsequently be integrated with baseline barley production life cycle inventory models to assess the extent to which adopting modified malt processing protocols could reduce water and energy use as well as life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and other impacts. Technoeconomic assessments will be undertaken, along with optimization modelling to support multi-criteria sustainability decision making in the malting industry.
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