2022 Sasol Sustainability Report - Book - Page 55
SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE AGAINST OUR FOCUS AREAS
INTRODUCTION
MANAGING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT (CONTINUED)
Air quality management (continued)
WHAT WE ARE DOING (CONTINUED)
Air quality abatement achievement: Progress over the last year
PM EMISSION
REDUCTION
Boiler/steam plant improvements for PM reduction within Secunda, Sasolburg and Natref Operations include:
• At SO, more than half of the electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) (a total of nine out of 17) have been retrofitted with
improved function transformers for PM abatement. Three of these were installed over the last year, with the remainder
planned for roll out up to 2025.
• At SEO Steam Station 2 plant, six out of seven ESPs have been upgraded and already indicate a reduction towards
the requisite new plant standard of 50 mg/Nm³. At the Steam Station 1 plant however, due to the mature status of
the plant as well as extremely limited space around the plant, challenges have been experienced post the installation
of the PM abatement on the first boiler. Accordingly, the next scheduled boiler’s ESP and low NOx burner abatement
programme was brought forward for implementation this calendar year with a different technology supplier in an effort
to establish whether alternative technology could optimise the ESP performance.
• At our Natref operations, the ESP project was commissioned in April 2022.
NOx EMISSION
REDUCTION
Boiler/steam plant improvements for NOx reduction within Secunda and Sasolburg operations include:
• At SO a total of three boilers have been installed with low oxides of nitrogen burners confirming that the selected
technology will enable the fleet to comply with the MES limit for NOx. Roll-out to the remainder of the fleet is on track
to ensure full compliance with the MES limit, prior to April 2025, as specified in the AEL.
• At our Sasolburg operations, low NOx burners were installed on four of the 12 operational boilers, with two more low
NOx burner installations scheduled for 2022.
TOTAL VOLATILE
ORGANIC
COMPOUNDS
(TVOC) REDUCTION
Sasol’s volatile organic pollutant reduction drive started with the development of indicators of performance (IoP) more than
a decade ago. This aimed to reduce emissions from five prioritised volatile compounds by more than 80%. The programme
has been shown to be highly effective in mitigating these pollutants. The legislative imperative to meet the prescribed MES
meant that the programme had to be extended to provide for a more integrated and holistic VOC reduction roadmap.
Improvements for TVOC reduction:
• Secunda – Progress on the TVOC drains project. Commissioning and beneficial operation have been reached on phase
one and phase three of the project. This included the installation of all drain lines, instruments, platforms and structures.
The remainder of the project, phase two and phase four, is on track with commissioning anticipated towards the end of 2022.
• Sasolburg – All tanks within Sasolburg either have abatement installed currently or are not classified as type 3 tanks and
therefore already meet the applicable regulatory requirements.
SO2 EMISSION
REDUCTION
To enable the SO load-base reduction through the integrated air quality and GHG roadmap, multiple projects such as
renewable energy, EnEf and infrastructure developments are required to supply SO with the electricity and steam that would
be lost through reducing boiler operations. As the steam plants boilers utilise fine coal as a feedstock, reduced boiler
operations would mean less fine coal burnt resulting in a fine coal excess. Various investigations and initiatives are underway
to address this.
INCINERATOR
REDUCTION
As an incinerator abatement option for SO biosludge and our high organic stream does not align with our ambition to move
up the waste hierarchy, various alternatives that reduce our environmental footprint for both atmospheric emissions and
waste have been investigated. One promising solution is a biosludge to gasification option. The details around this option
have been included as a feature story on page 55.
Significant improvements were realised from 2015 to 2021. These were detailed in Sasol’s 2021
SR
on pages 45 to 46.
SASOL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2022
54
DATA AND ASSURANCE