 Better treatment leads to CO2 emissions savings
Kemira
Kemira has a strong competence, leading technology, and an extensive product range in water management chemistry. Our segments, paper, municipal & industrial and oil & mining, can all use the same product know-how and chemistry in their operations which we have built through dedicated research and development work, as well as numerous acquisitions. Our operations are divided into four geographical areas: North America, South America, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa. Environment and Safety is in the core of our operations.
Our commitments include:
a) Preventing and minimising any harmful effects of our operations on the environment, people and property,
b) Promoting sustainable development by making efficient use of energy and natural resources. Following these commitments over the years, Kemira’s CO2 emission has dropped from 1,828,000 CO2 tones in 2004 to 205,000 CO2 tones by 2008, by long planning, execution of strategies and divestment of selected processes.
The Group holds assigned emissions allowances under the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System at a single site in Sweden. In net volumes, these allowances at Group level showed a surplus of 2,230 CO2 tones in 2008.
Carbon and water footprint
While the carbon footprint is a well known environmental concept, the water footprint is a less familiar indicator of water use or contamination caused by products, people or companies. A positive water or carbon footprint is also possible, since products can have a positive impact on the environment by cleaning water or absorbing carbon. Kemira’s water footprint shows how our products help treat increasingly larger volumes of our customers’ water across the world.
In the chemical industry, environment and safety play an important part in corporate responsibility, particularly concerning products and their supply chain. With the help of water treatment and recycling, we can play our part in reducing our customers’ environmental footprint. For example, we help our customers make better use of scarce resources, decrease their waste load through recycling, and streamline their processes, everything that decreases their CO2 emissions and water footprint.
Looking to the future
At our customers’ effluent treatment plants, our philosophy has been on how to get more energy out from the plant than it consumes. Basically this means turning an effluent treatment plant into one which is more socially acceptable – a power plant. For the moment, this is only possibly if the effluent treatment plant has anaerobic reactors and sludge digesters.
One way of doing it, is by precipitating as much as possible of the incoming carbon source in the presedimentation stage, and utilising the gathered sludge as the source of biogas in the digesters. The digesters’ performance in producing more biogas can also be improved by adding the right types of enzymes to speed up the process, as well as feeding micronutrients needed by the bacteria to enhance their work. As an example, an 120,000 m3/d municipal waste water treatment plant, after utilising existing biogas for electricity generation, still needs to purchase a further 15,900 kWh/d to run the plant. With effective presedimentation, the additional carbon source brings the plant surplus energy to 11,900 kW/h!
Most of the CO2 emissions related to aerobic treatment plants are coming from power needed to run the aerators and emissions resulted from the bacteria metabolism when decomposing organic matter. In an industrial effluent treatment plant, by selecting the right type of defoamers, coagulants and micronutrients for the aerobic treatment plant, the amount of energy used for running the aerators can be reduced significantly and thereby cutting the CO2 emissions.
With just these examples Kemira knows it is possible to decrease the water and carbon footprint in our own, as well as in our customers’, processes in a positive way.
As the Earth changes – so must we.
 Kemira Oyj
W: www.kemira.com
|
