Electrolyte Filtration
Importing a Pressure Vessel into Canada: CRN Registration, Province by Province, and Where the ASME Stamp Is Required
A CRN is provincial, not national. What each province asks of an imported pressure vessel, where the ASME stamp is the default, and which exemptions are unlikely to cover an electrolyte.
The short answer
Unless it falls within an exemption, a pressure vessel needs its design registered with the safety authority of the province or territory where it will operate, and Ontario requires that before the vessel is manufactured for use there. Registration produces a Canadian Registration Number (CRN), which goes on the nameplate. There is no national CRN. Ontario's regulator states it in so many words: "A Canadian Central Registration Number (CCRN) does not exist."
For a vessel built outside Canada there is a second gate alongside the design, and it concerns the manufacturer rather than the drawing. Ontario's adopted code text says that manufacturers in countries other than Canada exporting boilers and pressure vessels "shall hold an ASME Certificate of Authorization" and stamp every vessel with the ASME certification mark, and Alberta's regulator says the same of organisations outside Canada. Ontario also keeps a written alternative for a manufacturer without an ASME certificate. Québec's CRN application asks for proof of a quality control program, in the form of an ASME or a CSA B51 certificate; the texts we read do not say whether Québec accepts an overseas vessel without the ASME mark.
For a liquid-duty filter, Ontario's exemption for liquids "not more hazardous than water" is unlikely to cover a sulphuric acid electrolyte, and Alberta's Exemption Order has no such exemption.
In Ontario and Alberta, the stamp is the default for an overseas manufacturer
This fifth article in our jurisdiction series reaches a different answer from the earlier ones. In Australia, practitioners report that U-stamping is not mandatory for domestic installations whatever ASME code was used. In Singapore, the Ministry of Manpower asks for a fabrication survey by an accredited inspection body and does not ask for a stamp. In both places, a buyer who writes "ASME U-stamped" into the requisition is asking for more than the regulator does, or, in Australia, more than practitioners say it does.
In Ontario and Alberta the requisition and the regulator are much closer together. Three regulator documents set the position for a manufacturer outside the country: Ontario's adopted code text, ABSA's published FAQ for organisations outside Canada, and the RBQ's CRN application page.
Ontario. TSSA's Code Adoption Document Amendment BPV-24-01, effective 1 October 2024, adopts CSA B51-19 and replaces the first sentence of clause 4.10.1.2 with: "Manufacturers in countries other than Canada that manufacture and export boilers and pressure vessels to Canada shall hold an ASME Certificate of Authorization and ensure that all boilers and pressure vessels are stamped with the ASME code certification mark and the applicable designator." Registration with the National Board is not required. The clause says "to Canada", but it is Ontario's adopted text and binds equipment for Ontario.
Alberta. ABSA's FAQ page for organisations located outside Canada states that those who construct boilers, pressure vessels and pressure relief devices for Alberta "must be certified by ASME and hold the required code stamps", that the design must be registered with ABSA, and that new pressure vessels "must be ASME Code stamped" and accompanied by ASME Manufacturer's Data Reports.
Québec. The RBQ's CRN application asks for "a proof that you have implemented a quality control program for the manufacturing of pressure equipment (copy of the ASME or CSA B51 certificate when obtained from an organization other than the RBQ)". Since 29 July 2026 (the RBQ's date) Québec's regulation also requires pressure vessels to be fabricated to ASME Section VIII. Neither text says whether Québec accepts an overseas vessel without the ASME mark, so ask the RBQ.
The quoted Ontario wording is Ontario's substituted sentence. The remainder of the CSA clause still applies in Ontario; we have not read it, and we do not attribute the quoted wording to CSA.
The alternative Ontario keeps open
The same Ontario amendment substitutes clause 4.10.2.1. A manufacturer of boilers or pressure vessels that does not hold an ASME Certificate of Authorization "may apply to have their product accepted by the regulatory authority". It has to demonstrate, by a written manual and a review of its facilities and procedures, that its quality control system meets the applicable section of the ASME Code; for Section VIII, Division 1 vessels the clause gives Appendix 10 as the example. Approval must be issued in writing. The manufacturer continues to be acceptable if later reviews confirm it, and approval can be withdrawn immediately for non-adherence.
Separately, TSSA's web pages say a TSSA Certificate of Authorization is required before manufacturing a non-exempt item for use in Ontario, that it is open to "companies from Ontario and around the world", and that a separate application form exists for businesses based outside Ontario. The pages do not say how that certificate relates to the ASME requirement in clause 4.10.1.2; confirm with TSSA.
ABSA's FAQ for organisations outside Canada names the ASME stamp and no alternative. (The same FAQ says such organisations do not need an ABSA Certificate of Authorization Permit, ABSA-registered welding procedures or an ABSA inspector; a local Authorized Inspector contracted by the manufacturer may inspect instead. The Regulation itself requires registered welding procedures but lets the Administrator waive this for equipment made outside Alberta, s. 27(3). Welding must meet ASME Section IX.)
So in Ontario, a non-stamped vessel from abroad turns on whether the manufacturer holds, or can obtain, written acceptance under clause 4.10.2.1 before fabrication starts. In Québec, ask the RBQ. In Alberta, ABSA's published position is the stamp.
What a CRN is, and what it is not
TSSA describes the CRN as "a number issued by a provincial safety authority that legally allows the installation and use of boilers, pressure vessels or fitting", issued after an engineering review of the design. Three features matter.
It is issued per province. "Pressure equipment must be registered in each province or territory where it will be used" (TSSA). The RBQ says the same for Québec. A design registered in Ontario is not registered in Alberta.
The design review can travel, even though the registration cannot. Since 1 January 2020, design reviews carried out by one province or territory have been mutually recognised by the jurisdictions participating in the Reconciliation Agreement for the Canadian Registration Number for Pressure Equipment. TSSA and the RBQ both run a multi-jurisdiction service, so one application can request CRNs in several provinces at once. Confirm that the province of installation participates; we did not verify the current list of participants at source.
The number records where it was first registered. The digit after the decimal point identifies the province of first registration; Ontario's code text describes this for fittings and uses 5 for Ontario. Further digits are commonly added as other provinces register the same design.
The CRN goes on the nameplate of every boiler and pressure vessel (Ontario's clause 5.1.1; the RBQ's registration page says the same). Ontario's clause also requires the nameplate to be stamped in accordance with the applicable section of the ASME Code, so a manufacturer accepted under clause 4.10.2.1 should confirm with TSSA how its nameplate is to be marked.
The two gates: the design, and the manufacturer
The provincial texts set two separate tests for an imported vessel, and a buyer who tracks only the first can be caught by the second.
Gate one: design registration
Ontario. "No person shall manufacture a boiler, pressure vessel, fitting or piping for use in Ontario unless its design is registered with the director" (O. Reg. 220/01, s. 4(1)). The design bears the signature and seal of a professional engineer experienced in boiler, pressure vessel, piping or fitting design (s. 4(3)), and the Regulation defines a professional engineer as a person licensed under Ontario's Professional Engineers Act (s. 1). TSSA's multi-jurisdiction service likewise asks for drawings and calculations stamped by an Ontario-licensed professional engineer and a valid Quality Program Certificate for the vessel manufacturer. Once the design has been submitted, construction may start before registration, at the risk of the person who starts it (s. 4(2)). Nothing may be operated without a current certificate of inspection (s. 5(1)).
Alberta. No person shall construct, manufacture or import for use in Alberta any pressure equipment unless its design is registered (Pressure Equipment Safety Regulation, s. 14(1)). A person bringing an unregistered design into Alberta "must ensure" that the design owner or the manufacturer obtains registration (s. 14(2)). That duty falls on the importer.
Québec. Calculations and drawings signed by an engineer go to the RBQ with the application. The amended Regulation respecting pressure installations prohibits selling, renting, using or operating unapproved pressure equipment, and it sends a vessel whose plans were not registered with the RBQ for inspection by the RBQ before a Québec identification number is assigned.
Newfoundland and Labrador. Designs follow CSA B51 (Regulation 119/96, s. 30). Drawings and specifications are submitted by the manufacturer under a professional engineer's seal, and those for vessels "designed and fabricated outside of the province" need the seal of an engineer who is a registered member of a recognised association and practises mechanical engineering (s. 31).
Gate two: the manufacturer
Gate two is covered by the stamp section above. Alberta adds its own rule for equipment built outside the province. It may not be used in Alberta unless the builder satisfies a safety codes officer that it was built to the registered design, by welders qualified to ASME Section IX, and inspected and tested substantially as it would have been in Alberta (s. 26). In Ontario, welding procedures and welder performance tests for equipment fabricated outside Canada must be approved by an authorized inspection agency acceptable to TSSA (clauses 4.4.2 and 4.5.3). Shop inspection outside Canada is also by an authorized inspection agency acceptable to TSSA, and TSSA's text says those agencies include ASME-accredited inspection agencies (clause 4.8.1).
Is an electrolyte filter inside the regulation at all?
Each of the four provincial texts exempts some vessels. Here is what each says, and where it stops.
Ontario: the water exemption, and why it is a poor fit
O. Reg. 220/01, s. 2(2), excludes among other things:
(d) a vessel containing gas, vapour or liquid at a maximum allowable working pressure of 103 kPa (15 psi) or less;
(e) a vessel that "contains liquids not more hazardous than water" and operates at 65 °C (150 °F) or less and a maximum allowable working pressure of 1,717 kPa (250 psi) or less;
(q) a vessel of 42.5 L (1.5 cubic feet) or less that is not a fitting;
(r) a vessel of 152 mm (6 in) internal diameter or less.
Exemption (e) is the one that looks written for liquid filters, and it is a poor fit for an electrolyte. The phrase "not more hazardous than water" is not defined in the Regulation or the code adoption document. The only place the code adoption document restates the (e) limits, clause 4.12, describes them as an exemption for tanks that contain water. A copper refining electrolyte is a sulphuric acid solution, which is hard to fit within that. Treat (e) as unavailable unless TSSA confirms otherwise in writing for your specific liquid. The 65 °C limb is a separate test, which you should check against the vessel's operating temperature in your circuit.
Exemption (d) turns on the maximum allowable working pressure, the pressure the vessel is rated for, and not on the pressure it usually runs at. A filter that operates gently but carries a higher MAWP on its nameplate is not exempt under (d).
Alberta: no water exemption
Alberta's Pressure Equipment Exemption Order (AR 56/2006, s. 2, consolidation current to 1 January 2020; check for later amendments) contains no exemption for liquids that are not more hazardous than water. Three items in the list, (e), (i) and (m), were repealed in 2014. For a process vessel, the routes left are:
(d) a vessel that is fully vented, or protected by relief devices set no higher than 103 kPa and sized so the operating pressure cannot exceed 103 kPa, and that also has no differential pressure across the boundary above 103 kPa;
(k) and (l) the small-vessel limits: a single unconnected vessel of 42.5 L or less, or 152 mm internal diameter or less, or a pressure plant whose vessels total 42.5 L or less.
The same filter can therefore look possibly exempt to a reader in Ontario and plainly in scope to a reader in Alberta. A plant in Alberta should assume registration is needed.
Newfoundland and Labrador: storage, not process
Regulation 119/96, s. 3(2), excludes a non-steam vessel "operated with the relief valve set at 103 kilopascals or less" and "a pressure vessel used for the storage of water or oil when the temperature of the water or oil is less than 66 C". The second covers storage of water or oil only and does not describe a filter clarifying electrolyte; the first applies only if the relief valve is set at 103 kPa or less.
Québec: read the figures
The RBQ sets the volume, pressure and temperature limits for exempt pressure vessels in the figures to article 2 of the Regulation respecting pressure installations, and articles 3 and 4 list further exempt equipment. We have not reproduced those figures here; check the current consolidated text for the specific vessel.
In Ontario and Alberta, the exemptions that do not depend on the liquid are the 103 kPa line and the small-vessel limits. Newfoundland and Labrador has only the 103 kPa relief-valve line, and Québec's figures must be checked. In each case the 103 kPa line is tested against the rating or the relief setting, not the running pressure. A production-scale clarification filter with an MAWP or relief setting above 103 kPa should be planned as registered equipment.
Which provinces matter for non-ferrous refining
Natural Resources Canada lists one primary copper smelter and refinery in Québec, with two further sites in Ontario and in Newfoundland and Labrador that produce limited refined copper alongside other metals. In 2024 Canada produced refined cobalt at three refineries: Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta; Port Colborne, Ontario; and Long Harbour, Newfoundland and Labrador.
That puts the copper and cobalt refining sites NRCan lists under four regulators: the RBQ, ABSA, TSSA, and the provincial government service in Newfoundland and Labrador. For the process side of the nickel cobalt duties, see our duty map for a nickel cobalt hydrometallurgy plant.
Ontario's code adoption document and Québec's amended regulation both cite CSA B51-19; confirm the edition the province of installation applies when the design is submitted.
What to put in the requisition
The manufacturer gate is the one a requisition most easily misses, and it cannot be fixed after fabrication by paperwork alone. A requisition for an imported pressure vessel in Canada should state:
The province of installation, and any other province where the same design may be installed later, so registration can be requested in one multi-jurisdiction application.
Who will hold the CRN: the manufacturer, the designer or a dealer.
The manufacturer's acceptance route in that province: an ASME Certificate of Authorization with stamped vessels, or, in Ontario, written acceptance under clause 4.10.2.1, or, in Québec, the quality control certificate the RBQ will accept and its position on marking. For Alberta, plan on the stamp.
Design conditions on the drawing: contents, maximum allowable working pressure, design temperature, materials, corrosion allowance, test pressure, and the ASME edition used.
Any exemption claimed, and on which clause. For Ontario's exemption (e), get the regulator's view on your liquid in writing first.
Who seals the design: in Ontario, an Ontario-licensed professional engineer; in Newfoundland and Labrador, for a vessel designed and fabricated outside the province, a registered member of a recognised association practising mechanical engineering.
The inspection agency, acceptable to the province, that will inspect at the works.
The CRN on the nameplate, as issued.
Where Sharpenn fits
Sharpenn builds pressure filters for electrolyte clarification, running in leaf (body-feed) or precoat mode on a disposable filter cloth. We have designed and built to ASME Section VIII, Division 1. Building to the code is not the same as holding an ASME Certificate of Authorization, which is what the stamp requires. Our record: ~1,000 units installed worldwide across 460+ installations (all applications); 25 units in copper refining; capacities 5 to 350 m³/hr; repeat orders after 20 to 25 years.
For a Canadian duty, tell us the province of installation with the flow, the electrolyte and the design conditions, before the design is frozen, so the manufacturer acceptance route in that province is settled with you and the provincial authority first and we can tell you plainly whether and how we can meet it. Our guide to electrolyte filtration for copper refineries covers where the filter sits in the circuit.
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