Environmental impact assessment of chemical facilities

Environmental impact assessment of chemical facilities

Among many industries, chemical is different high complexity of production organization. Thanks to the latest approaches to the production of chemical products, it is possible to solve ecological problems that are common in chemical production.

Chemical industry enterprises consume a large amount of energy, raw materials and water, and therefore, during manufacturing many by-products are formed. At balanced ecological approach, by-products should be used as secondary resources, but now in most companies they are accumulating as waste. Priority all wastes from the chemical industry, because of excessive toxicity, must be liquidate.

The chemical industry also has a real impact on the problem of global warming. Sulfur and nitrogen oxides, chlorofluorocarbons, various process gases, increase the greenhouse effect.

To increase revenue, it is profitable for chemical companies to increase production. To do this, they must reduce the negative impact on the environment.

Development of new technological solutions, improvement of existing production  techniques is the only way to stop environmental pollution.

Environmental impact assessment – EIA – is carried out to measure the impact on environment of chemical facilities.

The Law of Ukraine “On Environmental Impact Assessment” for the chemical industry distinguishes activities that have a significant environmental impact.

Chemical production, including production of basic chemicals, chemical-biological, biotechnical, pharmaceutical production using chemical or biological processes, production for plant protection, plant growth regulators, mineral fertilizers, polymeric and polymer-containing materials, varnishes, paints, elastomers, peroxides,  production and storage of nanomaterials with a capacity of more than 10 tons per year – these activities are in the first category of planned activity, so all documents in the process of environmental impact assessment are submitted to a central authority (Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine).

Chemical industry: plants for the production of explosives; installations in which chemical and biological processes are used to produce protein feed additives, enzymes and other protein substances; storage for chemical products – such activities belong to the second category of planned activity, which means that the developed documents are submitted to the local authority.

For providing environmental impact assessments for enterprises, working in the chemical industry there is the following order:

1. Preparation of the notification on planned activity, which is subject to an assessment of the environmental impact. The notification is downloaded to the Register of EIA and published in at least two print media for local residents to be informed about the planned activities of the business entity.
2. Preparation of a report on the environmental impact assessment, taking into account the comments and propositions received from the public and the results of the research conducted. The Report on Environmental Impact Assessment Report is also posted in the Register of EIA;
3. Preparation of the announcement of the public hearings of the report on the environmental impact assessment and its publication in the register of EIA and printed publications;
4. Conduct a public discussion of the report on the EIA. For organizing and conducting public discussion, the business entity pays an official fee to central/local authority. According to the results of the public discussion of the EIA report, it prepares and uploads a public discussion report to the EIA registry.
5. At the same time as the report on public discussion, an statement on the environmental impact assessment is published in the EIA registry. Obtaining approval on the environmental impact assessment is the final stage of the EIA procedure.

MCL carries out environmental impact assessment “on a turn-key basis”: from the preparation of the notification on planned activities that is subject to the environmental impact assessment, before obtaining a conclusion on the environmental impact assessment.