Other emissions to air
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Aspiration |
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2020 |
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2019 |
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VOC efficiency improvement versus 20151 |
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continuous improvement |
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74% |
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74%2 |
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VOC (x 1,000 tons) |
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3.53 |
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2.7 |
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Our reporting on ‘Other emissions to air’ focuses on volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as these are the most significant emissions in this area. We continue to report our nitrous oxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in the Sustainability statements and via the company website. However, these emissions are not material due to improvement actions executed in the past.
We continue to work on our VOC emissions
Our objective is to continuously reduce our VOC emissions, resulting in a more than 50% efficiency improvement by 2021 — an increase on our previous aspiration of 40% for the three emissions by 2020. In 2020, our VOC efficiency remained stable versus 2019. Smaller improvements were offset by negative production effects, while the majority of the larger abatement projects have been executed in previous years. Our absolute VOC emissions increased due to the inclusion of acquired sites in the reporting scope. As this is the first year of reporting for these sites, they do not contribute to the VOC efficiency improvement.
In Yantai (Shandong Province, China), ethanol emissions were reduced by more than 50% compared to 2019 due to the implementation of several process improvements, improving staff awareness and monitoring. This improvement does not contribute to the year-on-year VOC efficiency improvement result because it is only the first year of reporting for Yantai, but it does contribute to the overall company VOC level in 2020.
