Non-GHG Air Emissions

Exposure to air pollution can affect everyone’s health. It is the greatest environmental threat to public health globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued stricter recommendations on safe air pollution levels in a bid to curb the millions of premature deaths and loss of millions more healthy years of life caused by air pollution.

Specific Policies and Commitments

The OMV Group Environmental Management Standard stipulates that all OMV Group businesses and activities must understand the impacts of their air emissions on local and regional ambient air quality. Air emissions are required to be monitored, controlled, and minimized in order to mitigate the potential for human health effects and harm to the environment. There are strong legal requirements surrounding air emissions in the EU, where all of our refineries are located. For instance, the EU does not permit the use of fuels containing sulfur to prevent transport-related SO_x emissions.

Management and Due Diligence Processes

Monitoring

In all our refineries, we monitor emissions of pollutants such as SO_x, NO_x, CO, particulate matter/dust, and (NM)VOCs as required by European and national legislation and the respective permits. If emissions are found to be in excess of nationally prescribed limits and/or limits defined in a permit, additional monitoring stations are installed, and measures are implemented.

Prevention and Treatment

OMV has long implemented technologies to reduce emissions, such as internal floating roofs to reduce emissions of VOCs. We have been focusing on upgrading such technologies to ensure that they are still doing their job and reducing emissions. For instance, in 2007, we commissioned a SNO_x flue gas cleaning plant at the Schwechat refinery. With the SNO_x Refurbishment of Wet Sulfuric Acid (WSA) program, in which a solution patented by OMV (two-layer PFA film structure with monitoring system) was implemented, both the reliability and the availability of the flue gas cleaning system could be increased. The flue gas cleaning plant at the Schwechat refinery is used for the removal of dust, and for denitrification and desulfurization of flue gases from the two power plants before they are emitted via the stack. In a first process step, dust is separated via electrostatic precipitators. In the course of selective catalytic reduction, nitrogen oxides (NO_x) are converted into free nitrogen (N₂) and water (H₂O) by injecting ammonia (NH₃). In the third step, sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is oxidized with the aid of a catalyst and reacts with residual moisture to form gaseous sulfuric acid. Finally, the sulfuric acid is condensed in the WSA by means of air cooling and heat recovery. The sulfuric acid thus obtained is then either sold or used for pH adjustment within the refinery. Through these process steps, 98% of dust can be separated, more than 96% of sulfur can be recovered, and around 90% of NO_x emissions can be prevented. With a catalyst update in autumn 2022, a NO_x reduction rate of around 95% will be achievable again.

2021 Actions

The following key activities were carried out across the Group in 2021:

• At the Petrobrazi refinery, the tank modernization program continued in 2021 and included installation of internal floating membranes or double sealing for six volatile product tanks and commissioning of one new tank, according to BAT. These measures amounted to EUR 12.5 mn and contribute to the reduction of the environmental impact due to VOCs.
• In addition, OMV Petrom continued to restore sites that were formerly fuel terminals. This work can generate dust (from excavation, loading, soil treatment on the bioremediation platform, and earth fillings) and odors (from hydrocarbon vapors accumulated in the soil). The challenge was to minimize the dust and smell nuisance from a project site located in a sensitive area (with residential neighborhoods). Among the best practices applied were a water spray curtain, dust protection nets, forced ventilation, and off-site bioremediation of the most contaminated soil. In addition, we minimized dust-producing activities in periods of strong wind along with more intense wetting of the surfaces as well as covering the surfaces on the on-site biopiles. We optimized the transportation routes to minimize nuisance to the community, covered the load, washed the wheels at the site exit to avoid contamination of public roads, and sprinkled the access roads on-site. There was periodical communication with the community and the authorities, and the relevant local authorities performed weekly site visits.

Outlook

In 2021, we launched a pilot project to develop an Odor Management Plan for one representative facility at an E&P OMV Petrom asset. We estimate that we will finalize this pilot project in 2022.