Environment
Development plans
In the years to come, the environmental impact of the individual industrial processes and the refinery as a whole will be mitigated by a range of investement and renovation programmes. When the projects are completed, the level of atmospheric emissions will be significantly reduced.
Grupa LOTOS is involved in the construction of a high-efficiency gas-fired power plant, which will partly replace the existing oil-fulled CHP plant. Before then, other projects are also planned, e.g. the upgrade of the CHP plant’s boilers, which will involve fitting them in with low-NOX emission burners. Conceptual design work is also under way to switch to natural gas as the basic fuel for the refinery (both as an energy source and feedstock in hydrogen production) and utilise discharge gases currently burned in flares.
Management of chemicals
The Polish and EU legislation requires Grupa LOTOS to specify the impact of all its products on human health and safety. All products from crude oil refining are subject to classification, and thus to a health-impact and safety assessment. Throughout 2010, Grupa LOTOS was working intensively to ensure compliance with the requirements of the REACH (Registration Evaluation Authorisation of Chemicals) Regulation, as amended. In late September/early October 2010, the Company completed the REACH registration process and in December 2010 submitted the classification of substances marketed but not subject to obligatory registration under REACH. It needs to be noted that the meeting of the prescribed registration and classification deadlines was possible thanks to good coordination of work under the REACH Project, which was started well in advance.
The registration was made jointly with other refineries, based on relevant agreements concluded through the agency of international organisation of oil companies CONCAWE, whose research covers water and air quality. As part of the registration process, common classification criteria were agreed, labelling was proposed and the results of toxicity, ecotoxicity, physicochemical and identification testing were presented. Thanks to acting jointly, the cost of research done under the REACH Project was brought down some 25-fold relative to initial estimates.
Thanks to steps taken under the REACH programme, the Company’s customers have the guarantee that they will continue to receive certified high-quality products and that deliveries will be made in compliance with the provisions of applicable laws. Information between the individual companies as part of SIEF (Scientific Information Exchange Forum) and with the European Chemicals Agency based in Helsinki, Finland, was exchanged via electronic channels.
The REACH system at the LOTOS Group was supported by the integrated IT system, made available to all companies subject to the obligation to register refinery product streams. The system is compatible with other systems used by product consortia of other petrochemical companies. The IT tools included: free European data base and website, which was used for sending registration files. Grupa LOTOS is reviewing the progress of compiling so-called SVHC (substances of very high concern) Candidate Lists, taking all necessary steps to meet the obligations imposed by the REACH Regulation.
None of the substances produced and marketed by Grupa LOTOS is currently included in the SVHC Candidate List published by the European Chemicals Agency, and none is subject to the authorisation procedure.
