World in a drop of water
Release date:
06 January 2009
Tight supply of quality water for drinking and industry production could hinder the development of Shanghai, China's largest metropolis. Shanghai SECCO, BP's joint venture, was granted the Water-Saving Company award by the Shanghai Municipal government in May 2008. Benefiting from its water recycle and reuse designs, SECCO has managed a water recycle rate of 97.94% and a yearly saving of $600K in operating expense.
China, like many developing nations in the world, is faced with a number of environmental challenges, not least its chronic shortage of water. Shanghai, the biggest Chinese metropolis, is situated in the estuary of the Yangtze River, by the East China Sea. Although the city abounds with water resources, what it lacks is quality water for both drinking and industrial production. Experts have pointed out that along with sharp population growth and rapid economic development, the imbalance between supply and demand of water could hinder the city's development. Water conservation has inevitably become a top priority for Shanghai.
In May 2008, Shanghai SECCO Petrochemical was granted the Water-Saving Company award by the Shanghai Municipal government. However, SECCO has done more than simply using less water.
SECCO, co-founded by Sinopec Corp., Shanghai Petrochemical Co. and BP, has created a vision of zero discharge and no environmental damage since its inception. A number of measures have been taken to ensure this is the case and to ensure SECCO remains efficient.
SECCO's 900 ktpa ethylene plant, by far the largest one-piece facilities in terms of capacity in the world, was built with a steam-condensate recycling system to re-use water. The Acrylonitrile plant was designed with recycling and regeneration schemes to ensure self sufficiency for its steam, washing and cooling water. The Styrene plant was built to reuse steam condensate for heat recovery and boiler water. These designs allowed a recycle rate of 97.94%, significantly higher than the standard requirement of 65%. Due to the effort in recycle and reuse of cooling water, the environmental discharge has been reduced by 280K tons/year. These efforts resulted in reduction of 9.6 million tons of cooling water/year as compared to design and $600K/year savings in operating expense.
SECCO continues to look for new ideas to reduce its impact on the environment and continuously improve. It has already sanctioned a project to recover cooling water which will lead to a further reduction of 500 te/hr and potential $3million savings in annual operations.
SECCO's advanced environmental-friendly design is recognized widely within the industry as a best local practice combining with the best of global technologies. Leaders, engineers, and operational people have been promoting environmental friendly culture and engaging workforce for ideas to drive improvement. SECCO has also actively supported efforts in promoting environmental awareness and practices in the local community.
Applying BP's latest technologies, SECCO's foul water and noise emission has been effectively reduced, allowing the site's pollutant emission keeping at a lower level than industry regulation. Like any BP China sites, the cutting-edge technologies used in SECCO are also among the most advanced in BP globally.
SECCO has won recognition from the Chinese government with its excellent operation performance and prominent energy-saving achievements. In Nov, 2007, Shanghai SECCO ranked no.1 in the list of top 10 most efficient basic chemical raw material manufacturers released by the National Bureau of Statistics. In June, 2008, the Shanghai municipal government awarded SECCO with the title of Shanghai Advanced Energy-saving Enterprise for 2007 and conferred the medal.
SECCO's water saving story is part of China's endeavor to achieve sustainable growth. Starting Jan 1st 2009, China begins to implement its Circular Economy Promotion Law which aims to improve resource utilization efficiency, protect and improve the environment and realize sustainable development. It is increasingly important in today's China that foreign companies deliver, not only profit-making, but also environmental-friendly and sound operations. As a member company of the China Business Council for Sustainable Development, BP has been actively sharing and promoting SECCO's experiences and practices within the industry. Through such exchanges, BP hopes to contribute to the improvement of the overall safety standard and energy conservation achievements of China's chemical industry.
