Industrial Consumption of Energy Survey Guide

Archived information

Archived information is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

Environment, Energy and Transportation Statistics Division
Energy Section

I. Who should complete this questionnaire?

An engineer, a production manager, an operation manager or someone knowledgeable about the energy consumption and production process of this enterprise should complete this questionnaire.

II. Reporting instructions

Please report all quantities of energy commodities consumed from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, be they purchased or self-generated by the industrial establishment. Exclude energy used by contractors, common carriers and suppliers. Round all data to the nearest whole number. If you need assistance, please contact Statistics Canada at the telephone number indicated on your questionnaire.

III. Retention

Please keep a copy of the completed questionnaire with your secure records for two years after submission.

IV. Definitions

Type of energy use

Amount consumed as fuel: The quantity of the energy commodity used to power the production process of the plant, which includes heating and transportation at the establishment.

Amount consumed to produce steam for sale: The quantity of the energy commodity used in the production of steam that is delivered to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding. Energy used in the production of steam that is then used internally in the production process is reported in the "amount consumed as fuel" column.

Amount consumed to produce electricity: The quantity of the energy commodity used to generate electricity either for the plant's own use or for delivery to another establishment, as per a sales contract or other understanding.

Amount consumed for non-energy use: The quantity of the energy commodity used for other purposes than As Fuel in the plant production process or to Produce Electricity or Steam. Some examples of energy commodities used for non-energy use are:

  • Natural gas used as a reducing agent to produce direct reduced iron (DRI)
  • Petroleum coke used as feed to reduce lead oxide in lead production
  • Natural gas used as feed to produce hydrogen and ammonia
  • Anthracite used as feed (as a reducing agent) to produce ferrosilicon and silicon metal

Electricity Generated

Please report the total amount of electricity generated, whether used within the plant or sold.

Type of energy consumed

Please report your energy use according to the following commodity definitions.

Section 1

Electricity: A form of energy generated by friction, induction or chemical change that is caused by the presence and motion of elementary-charged particles. The electricity that is consumed can either be received by the establishment (purchased) or produced by the establishment (self-generated).

Natural gas: A mixture of hydrocarbons, comprised principally of methane (CH4), originating in the gaseous phase or in solution with crude oil in porous geologic formations beneath the earth's surface.

Propane: A gaseous, straight-chained hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of three atoms of carbon and eight atoms of hydrogen (C3H8). Used primarily in residential and commercial heating and cooling, as transportation fuel and petrochemical feedstock.

Middle distillates (diesel, light fuel oil, kerosene)

Diesel: All grades of distillate fuel used for diesel engines, including those with low sulphur content (lower than 0.05%). Does not include diesel used for transportation off the plant site.

Light fuel oil: A light petroleum distillate used for power burners. Includes fuel oil no. 2, fuel oil no. 3, furnace fuel oil, gas oils, and light industrial fuel.

Kerosene and other middle distillates: Includes kerosene (a light petroleum distillate that is used in space heaters, cook stoves and water heaters and is suitable for use as a light source when burned in wick-fed lamps; also known as stove oil), fuel oil no. 1, and mineral lamp oil. Does not include gasoline used for transportation off the plant site.

Heavy fuel oil (Canadian/Foreign): All grades of residual type fuels including those with low sulphur content. Usually used for steam and electric power generation and diesel motors. Includes heavy fuel oil nos. 4, 5, 6 and bunker C.

Wood and wood waste: Wood and wood energy used as fuel, including round wood (cord wood), lignin, wood scraps from furniture and window frame manufacturing, wood chips, bark, sawdust, shavings, lumber rejects, forest residues, charcoal and pulp waste from the operation of pulp mills, sawmills and plywood mills.

Spent pulping liquor (Black liquor): A recycled by-product formed during the pulping of wood in the paper-making process. It is primarily made up of lignin and other wood constituents and chemicals that are by-products of the manufacture of chemical pulp. It is burned As Fuel or in a recovery boiler which produces steam which can be used to produce electricity.

Refuse: Solid or liquid waste materials used as a combustible energy source. This would include the burning of wastepaper, packing materials, garbage and other industrial, agricultural and urban refuse and is often used to generate electricity. Please specify type.

Steam: A gas resulting from the vaporization of a liquid or the sublimation of a solid, generated by condensing or non-condensing turbines. The steam that is consumed can either be produced by the establishment (self-generated) or received by the establishment (purchased). Report steam used as fuel for the production process, and steam used for atomization or as feed in process application as non energy use. However, steam consumed for own use should not be.

Special note: the fuels used to generate steam within the establishment should be reported under "as fuel" for those fuels. For example, if 100 cubic metres of heavy fuel oil was used to produce steam, the heavy fuel oil consumption should be reported under "as fuel". The consumption of the self-generated steam should be reported under the steam consumption section.

Section 2

Coal: A readily combustible, black or brownish-black rock-like substance, whose composition, including inherent moisture, consists of more than 50% by weight and 70% by volume of carbonaceous material. It is formed from plant remains that have been compacted, hardened, chemically altered and metamorphosed by heat and pressure over geologic time without access to air.

Bituminous coal (Canadian / Foreign): A dense, black coal, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material with a moisture content usually less than 20 per cent. It has a higher heating value and higher volatile matter and ash content than sub-bituminous coal; the heating value of bituminous coal typically ranges from 23.3 to 30.2 terajoules per kilotonne. Used in making coke, in steam and electricity production, as well as in the production of steel. Metallurgical coal is typically bituminous coal.

Sub-bituminous coal (Canadian / Foreign): A black coal used primarily for thermal generation. It has a high moisture content, between 15 and 40 percent by weight. Its sulphur content is typically quite low; its ash content is also usually low but volatile matter is usually high and can exceed 40% of the weight. Heating value varies from 16.3 terajoules per kilotonne to slightly over 20.9 terajoules per kilotonne.

Lignite: Low-rank, brown coals which are distinctly brown and woody or claylike in appearance, and which contain relatively high moisture contents (between 30 and 70 percent of the fuel by weight). Used almost exclusively for electric power generation.

Anthracite: A hard, black, lustrous coal containing a high percentage of fixed carbon, a low percentage of volatile matter, little moisture content, low sulfur, low ash and a high heating value at or above 27.7 terajoules per kilotonne that burns with a nearly smokeless flame. Generally used in the production of steel.

Coal coke (Canadian/Foreign): A hard, porous product made from the carbonization (baking) of bituminous coal in ovens in substoichiometric atmosphere at high temperatures to the extent that the volatile matter of the coal is released and the coal passes through a "plastic stage" to become metallurgical coke. Often used as a fuel and a carbon input (reducing agent) in smelting iron ore in an integrated steel mill (blast furnace). Coke breeze and foundry coke are included in this category.

Coal by-products

Coal tar: Organic material separated from coke oven gas evolved during coking operations (a black and viscous liquid). This category includes pyridine, tar acids, naphthalene, creosote oil, and coal pitch.

Light coal oil: Condensable products (primarily benzene, toluene, xylene and solvent naphtha) obtained during distillation of the coke oven gas, following removal of the coal tar.

Coke oven gas: Obtained as a by-product of solid fuel carbonization and gasification operations carried out by coke producers and iron and steel plants.

Section 3

Petroleum coke (Canadian/Foreign): A final product, often called a "waste product", of the petroleum refining process, which is the output of the refinery after all of the distillates and oils have been distilled from crude oil, leaving a product that has the appearance of coal. There are various types, e.g. "sponge", "shot", and "fluid" coke, which are differentiated according to size. Petroleum coke is a residue high in carbon content and low in hydrogen that is the final product of thermal decomposition in the condensation process in cracking. It is typically high in sulfur, low in volatile matter, low in ash and low in moisture. It may be sold as is or further purified by calcining for specialty uses, including anode production. It may also be burned as fuel in various processes, ranging from power plants to cement kilns. Heating value is typically around 40 terajoules per kilotonne.

Refinery fuel gas: Any un-separated mixture of gases produced in refineries by distillation, cracking, reforming and other processes. The principal constituents are methane, ethane, ethylene, normal butane, butylenes, propane, propylene, etc. Also known as still gas. Still gas is used as a refinery fuel and a petrochemical feedstock.

Coke on catalyst (Catalyst coke): In many catalytic operations (e.g. catalytic cracking), carbon is deposited on the catalyst, thus deactivating the catalyst. The catalyst is reactivated by burning off the carbon, which is used as a fuel in the refining process. This carbon or coke is not recoverable in a concentrated form.

Bitumen emulsion (Orimulsion): A thick oil and water emulsion. It is made by mixing bitumen with about 30% water and a small amount of surfactant. Behaves similarly to fuel oil and was developed for industrial use.

Ethane: A normally gaseous, straight-chain hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of two atoms of carbon and six atoms of hydrogen (C2H6), used as petrochemical feedstock in production of chemicals and plastics and as a solvent in enhanced oil recovery process.

Butane: A normally gaseous hydrocarbon. A colourless, paraffinic gas extracted from natural gas or refinery gas streams, consisting of molecules composed of four atoms of carbon and ten atoms of hydrogen (C4H10), used primarily for blending in high-octane gasoline, for residential and commercial heating, and in the manufacture of chemicals and synthetic rubber.

Naphtha: A feedstock destined primarily for the petrochemical industry (e.g. ethylene manufacture or aromatics production). Naphtha specialties comprise all finished products within the naphtha boiling range of 70-200°C that are used as paint thinners, cleaners or solvents. This also includes gas oil used as petrochemical feedstocks.

By-product gas: A mixture of hydrocarbons and hydrogen produced from chemical processes such as ethane cracking.

Flared gas: Gas that is being burned as a means of disposal to the environment usually when it contains odorous or toxic components. Flared gas should be reported as non-energy use.

Other: Any energy commodity consumed not otherwise identified on the questionnaire. Specify in the space provided along with the unit of measure.

Section 4

Steam sales

If an energy commodity is used to generate steam for sale, please report, in gigajoules, the amount sold to external clients.

Section 5

Reasons for changes in energy consumption

This section aims to reduce the necessity for further inquiries. Statistics Canada compares responses to this questionnaire with those from previous years. Please indicate the reason(s) that best describe significant changes in your energy consumption from the previous year along with an explanation.

Date modified: