Air Emissions

After a 17% reduction in 2009, we reduced our emissions to air by another 9% in 2010.

MOL Group is aware of the specific nature of air pollution, especially its trans-boundary and long-range effects. Pollutants can travel hundreds of miles until they reach their environmental or human targets and their impacts can be felt far from their origins. Air protection has therefore been at the centre of EU environmental policy priorities for several years now. The basis for air quality improvements in Europe are defined in the 6th Environment Action Program, where air protection is included under one of the four main headings. The program defines ten-year priority areas and targets and includes the health aspects of environmental issues. Other programs and strategies on this theme also set the framework for air quality improvement, one of which is the CAFE program (Clean Air for Europe). Finally, the Air Quality Directive, the recently-adopted industrial emissions directive and ongoing revisions of national emission ceilings set obligations on Member states and polluters as well. MOL Group, as a significant industrial player in CEE region understands its share of responsibility towards improving air quality and dedicates significant resources to minimizing its air emissions.

The most emissions come from the combustion of fossil fuels and from refining technologies. In the MOL Group, the Refining division accounts for up to 85% of total basic pollutants emitted to the air. This does not include power generation, which is another significant source of air emissions. The reason for not including power generation in this comparison is that such emissions are indirect emissions, generated by different legal entities which sell power and heat to refineries. The most significant pollutants of refineries are SO₂, NOx and VOCs. We focus on reduction of emissions through the installation of low NOx burners and the implementation of programs to detect and eliminate VOC leakages. Even though the power generation division is only partly owned by MOL, we do not ignore these emissions. The power plant at Slovnaft refinery (which burns heavy residues from the refinery) will be fitted with a flue gas desulphurisation unit which will dramatically decrease emissions of SO₂.

The Petchem division is another major polluter in our group, through emissions generated from steam crackers which emit pollutants from the combustion of fuels in furnaces. The most significant pollutants here are NOX and VOCs. While we managed to control NOx emission by installation of low-NOx burners in past years, recently we have focused on VOCs and implemented a project where we installed fixed roofs on floating roof tanks. Each process we operate at Petchem complies with BAT requirements.

At the Upstream division we focus on our recent acquisition - INA upstream installations. We are running an IPO project - assessment of INA HC production activities, aiming to reduce flared and vented HC and reduce internal gas consumption. Even though Upstream does not emit such significant quantities of emissions as downstream (Refining or Petchem), our goal is to continuously decrease emissions here too and our target is to flare and vent gas for only technological and emergency reasons. Our efforts are focused also on energy efficiency. Replacement of steam boilers with hot-water boilers and gas engines with electric engines contributes to improving energy efficiency with a positive impact on emissions.

While the above divisions emit emissions largely from the combustion of fuels and technological processes, Logistics and Retail divisions tell a different story. Here the most significant pollutant is VOC which is derived from the handling and storage of final petroleum products. Further, these emission sources are not located at one site, but distributed throughout the region with wide geographical impact. We manage these emissions by installing first and second stage vapor recovery units.

More info on air emissions can be found in MOL Group’s Annual Reports: 2008, 2009 and 2010.