Carbon footprint, reducing it, other emission cuts and ambitious climate goals have already for a while been very hot topics globally. Reducing our own and customers’ carbon footprint is also EPSE’s goal in the long run and there is plenty of potential around the topic: treatment with the EPSE™ Method doesn’t require extra heating and treating waste or process water where it’s generated reduces especially the need for climate heavy waste transportation. EPSE used the Finnish Environment Institute’s Y-Hiilari tool (1) and calculated using an example case, how the carbon footprint changes when instead of transporting hazardous, liquid waste to a remote treatment facility, the waste material is treated on site using the EPSE™ Method. When material is treated with the EPSE technology, metal free overflow and multi-metal precipitate are separated and thus the need for transportation is significantly smaller, since the treated water can be reused on site.
If the liquid waste volume is for example 50 000 tons per year, and all of it is transported 150 km to a treatment facility, only the transportation is equal to 415 000 kg CO2-eq according to Y-Hiilari. If the waste is treated with the EPSE™ Method, the amount of transportation reduces at least 70 %. The amount of carbon emissions reduced as a result, 290 000 kg CO2-eq, equals to 1,2 million passenger vehicle kilometers or over 50 000 houses’ electricity for a year. (2). EPSE is very interested in our own carbon footprint and is constantly looking for ways to reduce it. For smaller companies like EPSE the complicated calculation may be challenging, but even the small pieces provide more information which is always a basis for correct actions.
The amount of carbon emissions reduced as a result equals to 1,2 million passenger vehicle kilometers or over 50 houses’ electricity for a year.
A carbon dioxide equivalent or CO2 equivalent, abbreviated as CO2-eq is a metric measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases on the basis of their global-warming potential (GWP), by converting amounts of other gases to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide with the same global warming potential. (3)
(1) https://www.syke.fi/fi-FI/Tutkimus__kehittaminen/Kulutus_ja_tuotanto/Laskurit/YHiilari
(2) https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
This article was written by Anni Honkonen.