“Kommercheskiye Vesti”: Omsk enterprise follows the international ecological agenda

The AO “Omsky kauchuk” plant became a site for the implementation of the AO GC Titan ecological program.

The AO GC Titan was founded more than thirty years ago. Since the first day of operation the company has not only aimed to make a profit (although this is the reason for doing business), but to achieve environmental goals. Today Titan is one of the largest independent manufacturers of petrochemical products. The company has grown by relying mostly on its own resources. Environmental issues were addressed along with the production ones.

Trend Response

Environmental trends have become a real challenge for manufacturers. Chemical, petrochemical, metallurgical companies experience a constant pressure. On the one hand our citizens blame the companies for environmental pollution and demand if not closure, but real big environmental court cases. On the other hand the Government applies environmental mechanisms and carries out inspections. Recently, the third international factor has appeared – business should follow ESG-agenda.

ESG-transformation is the shift to doing business according to the principles of environmental, social and corporate responsibility. What does include Russian business ESG-agenda?  It is the greening of industrial production, increasing the production efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the transition to renewable energy sources. Sberbank Chairman Herman GREF announced such positive changes at the EEF-2021.

“These changes indicate the formation of new economic points of growth, which will increase business investment activity, create new jobs and accelerate the modernization of our economy under the global ESG challenges,” TASS quoted. 

Most Russian market participants are still waiting for this transformation. But there are companies which had started working in this direction before new terminology appeared. 

A Special Case

The AO “Omsky kauchuk” became a site for the implementation of the GC Titan’s environmental program.  With the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s, many of the company's contacts were lost, and it found itself in a difficult situation. And the first priority of the investor, the Group of Companies Titan, was to preserve the AO “Omsky kauchuk” as the flagship of the regional economy and not let it lose its market and go bankrupt.

“In the 1990s the number of active chemical processes decreased by about half – from 30 to 15. Some production facilities were completely shut down for various reasons, including the methylvinylpyridine and acetaldehyde production workshops”, recalls Nikolai KOMAROV, ex-director of the plant. – Closing unprofitable production facilities had a positive effect: emissions of acetic and hydrochloric acids, as well as other substances, were completely eliminated. The most important thing is that we managed to restore the production of quality goods and retain the team”.

Environmental measures were developed and implemented at the same time as the shutdowns were restarted.

At the beginning of 2000s upon recommendation of specialists from GC Titan the AO “Omsky kauchuk” refused to use sodium chloride in production of rubbers: transition to the new reagent allowed reducing annual waste water by 28 thousand cubic meters and excluding sodium chloride from the composition of waste water.

“Since 2005, the technology for purifying butadiene, a gas that is the raw material for synthetic rubbers, has changed. The process has become more efficient, and 60000 cubic meters of substance, containing copper and ammonia, are no longer going into waste water,” Acting Chief Engineer of the AO “Omsky kauchuk. Now we also do not have to eliminate copper-containing solid waste, ” Sergei SERGEEEV added.

In addition the complex technology for waste water purifying and recycling was implemented and the devices for collecting polymers chips in effluent. Since then, the ecological conversion of production has been going on continuously.

Source:Kommercheskiye Vesti, 01.12.2021

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