Environmental measures in Yamaguchi Operations

Environmental management

Yamaguchi Operations has established an environment management system and is ISO 14001 certified. It is involved in several activities aimed at the systematic and continuous improvement of the environment by performing the PDCA (Plan > Do > Check > Act) cycle.

Acquisition of ISO 14001 certification

Certified date	March 24, 2003
Certification body	Japan Chemical Quality Assurance Ltd.

Results of the environmental preservation activities

Measures for reducing air pollution

Yamaguchi Operations is striving to reduce the amount of air pollutants generated from the boiler facility and heating furnace.
We are successfully keeping the emission of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and dust within the agreed limits (*) by using the clean energy sources such as hydrogen refinery by-products generated from equipment at the plant and LPG as a means of reducing the amount of heavy fuel oil used during production, as well as installing electrical dust collectors, flue-gas denitration and desulfurization units.

•  Agreed value: Upper limit of emission set in accordance with an environmental preservation agreement with the city

Measures against water contamination

Yamaguchi Operations is striving to reduce the amount of water contaminants from the industrial effluent generated at its plants. We are successfully keeping the emission of COD (chemical oxygen demand), nitrogen and phosphorus within the agreed limits by treating effluent with a flocculation and sedimentation unit, and an activated carbon treatment unit. 

Industrial waste and recycling measures

Yamaguchi Operations is working on the reduction of the amount of industrial waste, including by-products (waste oil), sludge, and waste metals, as well as recycling of them.
We reduce the final volume of waste to be disposed of by intermediate treatment (dewatering, incineration or other processes for reduction of waste volume) and recycling.

Chemical substances management

Released and transferred quantity of substances defined in the PRTR system (for the fiscal year 2021)

Yamaguchi Operations is making every effort to maintain/continue to improve proper and effective control of chemical substances by compiling and analyzing the data on the quantity of released and transferred PRTR-specified substances. The emission of benzene has been substantially reduced since two benzene tanks were converted to the inner floating roof-type tanks in 2006.

(Unit: t/year)

Substance number	Substance name	Emissions into the atmosphere	Emission into the water bodies	Transferred quantity	Total
53	Ethylbenzene	2.4	0.0	0.0	2.4
59	Ethylenediamine	0.0	1.3	0.0	1.3
200	2,4-Dinitrophenol	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1
300	Toluene	0.8	0.0	0.0	0.8
400	Benzene	1.9	0.0	0.0	1.9

• * If the total released and transferred quantity of a substance is below 0.1 t/year, the substance is omitted.
• (*)PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) System
  It is a system, put in force since April 2001, in which the quantity of chemical substances that are potentially harmful to human health and to the ecosystem and that are emitted into the environment or transferred as contained in waste out of a business establishment is reported to the government once a year. This data is published by the government.