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In 2006 we wrote that a significant chemical company can not be successful without high level of performance in environmental protection. We further maintain this approach of ours and BorsodChem Group performs its production activity in compliance with the legal requirement system of member states in line with the European Union regulations.
Besides legal compliances, as members of various international trade organisations – in the form of voluntary commitment – we consider the generally advanced requirements of organisations as ours in the field environment protection. We report on the fulfilment thereof in the reports forwarded to the organisations as well as in the EPRT report.
Our communication is also aimed towards the local population, BorsodChem endeavours to increase the confidence of the local population against the Company by providing regular and accurate information and it believes that any occurring problems and situations of conflict can be remedied by means of appropriate communication.
In 2007 the Group fully complied with the legal requirements. Certain associated companies of the Group, in line with the principles defined in their own Environmental Protection Policy, sought to reduce environmental load and maintain the environmental usage risks at an acceptable level. It performed all this activity with the conscious application of the Environmental Management System operated in accordance with the international ISO 14001 standard in compliance with the sets of requirements of the standard. A significant element of this system is that employees take into account the environmental impacts of their activities in their everyday work. To facilitate this aim, we keep the environmental aspect of BorsodChem employees at a continuously improving level thanks to regular trainings.
The regulatory compliance of the Company’s operation was basically determined by the fact that under EU and domestic regulations, certain chemical industry activities will require the highest level environmental permit as of October 30, 2007, the so-called Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC permit). Pursuant thereto, we completed the series of environmental licensing procedure in 2007, the aim and outcome thereof was that all technologies at BorsodChem were granted the uniform environmental usage permit in time in order to operate to the exclusion of our hazardous waste landfill, whose operation we terminated on October 30, 2007. The reason thereof is that the landfill was almost full, therefore – despite the measures to improve the technical status carried out in previous years – in this case it was not reasonable to conduct the licensing procedure. Instead, we commenced the preliminary works required for the recultivation plan of the landfill.
During daily activities legal compliance can be monitored by the trend of emissions. In addition to our own data supplies and reports, the competent authorities performed controlling revision at each member of the Group. Both our in-house measurements and authority controls confirm that BorsodChem Group’s Kazincbarcika site just as BC-MCHZ in the Czech Republic and Petrochemia Blachownia in Poland operated with emissions under the limit values.
All members of the BorsodChem Group have quality and environmental management system, within the framework thereof all three members of the Group defined the Environmental Policy reflecting their fundamental environmental philosophy.
A part of EMS is the regular evaluation of environmental effects, on the basis thereof we determine the Company’s most important environmental goals and objectives.
BorsodChem is a member of several international professional organisations (Euro Chlor, International Isocyanate Institute, Europur, ECVM stb.). As a consequence, it has committed to adhere to the voluntary environmental commitments of these organisations, the aim thereof is to gradually improve the environmental performance of members. This means that in many cases we shall adhere to norms that are stricter than environmental regulations on the emission of pollutants. People living near our site increasingly request to gain an up-to-date picture of the Company’s activities, environmental protection situation, planned developments and their future effects. This is a significant aspect in case of BC-MCHZ as well, which received the “Sustainable Development” award and “Responsible Care” certificate and also in case of the Kazincbarcika-based company. Petrochemia-Blachownia carries out a wide range of charitable activities supporting schools, childcare institutions and foundations.
All members of the Group organise Open Days for the population, where it is rendered possible to become familiar with the environmental impacts of developments and measures to protect the environment.
The materials used and produced at the Company’s production site are also worthy of attention from an environmental protection standpoint. One of the most important among these is mercury used as a cathode in chlorine production. BorsodChem will also terminate the use of mercury as scheduled by EU regulations and other international commitments.
BorsodChem’s major central environmental developments launched in 2007 and carried over to 2008 focused on the expansion of the waste water treatment plant. We constructed new biodegradation reactors in order to prepare for the reception of waste waters to be increased in the near future and purification at a high level due to the developments on the isocyanate line. For the enhanced protection of soil and ground water resources we insulated our approximately 60,000 m3 capacity basin with HDPE film for the averaging of waste waters containing organic pollutants prior to biological treatment. On the whole, these investments cost over HUF 1 billion.
Besides the Company’s central environmental investments, considerable measures were taken at the production units as well aiming at the environmental performance of BorsodChem. The most significant are – without full consideration – the filtration and washing system established for the pre-treatment of brine filtration sludge at the Chlorine Plant, as a result thereof we can depose the sludge as a non-hazardous waste, which could be previously treated as a hazardous waste. It can be considered as a remarkable result both economically and environmentally. The investments executed for the sake of soil and ground water protection are of key significance including the several hundred meters of pipe repairs of the Steam-Water-Gas Plant and the reconstruction of the dichloroethane tank farm at the VCM Plant as well as the technical improving measures for the temporary storage of industrial waste water at MDI and the establishment of linings of retention trays for aniline extraction.
As regards air quality protection, the measures to improve end gas treatments are significant, thus reducing the emission of volatile halogenised components at PVC Manufacturing and the systems established for the washing of end gases with various organic material content at MDI and TDI Manufacturing can be highlighted.
At Petrochemia Blachownia considerable results were reached by the implementation of a waste water pre-treatment unit to reduce the remaining benzene content of their emitted waste water.
Our “hard” freon replacement program was completed, which was launched back in the late 90s to protect the stratospheric ozone layer. Today our production technologies apply without exception only so-called “soft” and “green” freons in the course of producing cold energy. The “green” freons that came forward in terms of the replacements as fluorene-content greenhouse effect gases deserve accelerated attention. In line with the relevant European Parliament and Council decree we began the preparation for the installation of necessary leak detectors.
Preceding the deadline of October 31, 2007 ensured by EU laws with nearly three years, at the end of 2004 BorsodChem Zrt. accomplished that unavoidable airspace emissions occurring during its activities remain under the limit value, which it has been continuously providing since then. After reaching the emissions under the limit values, we pay greater attention to monitor the air quality status developing in the environment of our Company. The results thereof show that in recent years the ambient air quality has improved to a considerable extent due to the emission-reduction measures.
BorsodChem is permitted to emit an annual volume of 10 million m3 of waste water into the receiving River Sajó. The established emission limit values are made up of technological and regional limit values. On the basis of governing laws, our Company shall control its waste water emission in the frame of self-checking as per the plan approved by the authority, which also means both quantity and quality control. On this basis the volume of waste water emission in 2007 was 5.4 million m3 and we did not register any limit value overrun as per the laboratory examinations performed in the frame of self-checking. The environmental authority accepted the results of self-checking, therefore waste water penalty could not be imposed for 2007. With respect to surface water protection, in 2007 by and large major renewal jobs can be mentioned, primarily at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. In case of production technologies, it became necessary to renew the micro-cell drum filters for the removal of suspended-matters of waste water at the Polymer II Plant. Besides, renewal jobs were performed on the canal network, which practically come up every year. Beyond the renewals, preparation was carried out in 2007 for the production developments to be launched in 2008 and simultaneously to estimate as to what tasks and investments are required by these capacity expansions in the field of surface waters protection.
A part of the renewals performed at the Waste Water Plant was constituted by the electricity reconstruction having been continuously done for several years. The implementation was completed by the end of Q4. The rest of developments were the renewal of waste water treatment objects and equipment. In Q2 the oxygen supply system of the aerobe biological basins and the aeration elements therein were repaired and replaced in case of need, thereafter the reinforced concrete construction of the object was renewed. The jobs went on with the coating-renewal of the anaerobe cleaning line basins. Two worn-out line press filters were replaced in the sludge concentrator.
Related to the development of production capacities – among other things in order to properly treat waste waters with high nitrogen content generated in the new TDI Plant, - capacity expansion of the waste water treatment system deemed necessary. We have evaluated several purification procedures related to the expansion of the Waste Water Treatment Plant and offers pertaining to the implementation thereof. Among the evaluation aspects, we took into account energy-saving and other aspects (e.g. waste generation) besides treatment efficiency. Following the assessment of offers, we concluded a contract with REM FWS Kft. at the end of the year for the implementation of an SBR type waste water treatment technology.
In recent years our Company has purchased several – in the neighbourhood of BorsodChem – areas to satisfy its development and expansion needs. The purchased areas used to be industrial sites previously as well, therefore a certain degree of soil and ground water contamination could be assumed. The assessment of environmental base case in the areas verified this assumption, yet at the same time we could not find contamination up to a degree that would endanger any site or water usage. On this basis it can be stated that industrial facilities can be established subsequently on the purchased areas as a so-called “brown field” investment. Thereby we not only promote the site to have a higher environmental performance, but the opportunity presents itself to replace green fields required for the planned investments.
By means of monitoring the behaviour of limited small-scale contaminations, we started the preliminary works required for monitoring provided by the Environmental Inspectorate.
At the VCM Plant site the environmental protection investment launched in 2006 was completed by the construction of the stripping unit in 2007. The total investment amounted to HUF 437.5 M, out of which we covered HUF 422 M from the won KIOP support. Following the completion of trial run in November 2007, we commissioned the facility in February 2008 and the technology operates smoothly. We have already reached the targeted state as specified in the project for 2008 that can be characterised by the so-called indicator parameters – exploiting the determined volume of contaminant –, and on the basis of monitoring results it can be established that the spread of contamination has stopped.
It is an important circumstance also from the aspect of waste management that we executed several significant investments in the past period as a result of the Company’s dynamic growth. The impact thereof on waste management is reflected in the volume of wastes generated in the years of 2006-2007.
We can consider it an outstanding achievement that the volume of generated hazardous wastes shows a large-scale (about 35%) decline against previous year’s value. The most substantial reason thereof is the operation of the sludge-drying unit installed early 2007 at the Waste Water Treatment Plant. By the commissioning of the sludge-drying unit, the volume of waste water treatment sludge fell by nearly 90%. The dried waste water treatment sludge lacks infectivity, thus not only the volume of generated waste decreased considerably, but its hazardous property was also terminated.
The membrane-cell Chlorine Plant started production at the end of 2006, the volume of brine sludge generating during its operation is 1300 t/year. The brine filtration sludge generating here fails to contain either mercury or barium, therefore it qualifies as a non-hazardous waste. By commissioning the new technology, the specific quantity of wastes generating in the course of chlorine production and to be eliminated by deposition has dropped by 40%.
Our Company closed the hazardous waste landfill in Berente on October 30, 2007. We concluded contracts with external specialist companies having permit for the placement of our wastes to be eliminated by disposal.
We established selective collecting islands for packaging wastes on our Company site at the end of 2007. Thereby not only the packaging wastes generated in large volume during the production of plants are collected selectively, but the selective collection of household packaging wastes is also realised.
