October 9, 2024 16:10

Stricter environmental regulations may lead to the shutdown of chemical sites, impacting employment. This is the situation in Belgium, where Ineos' purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Geel is at risk of closure, potentially putting 600 workers out of jobs due to cobalt levels in the catalysts used.

The British chemical group claims that regulators are imposing unachievable environmental targets, despite the plant already reducing cobalt levels by 80%. The company states, "The plant, which has operated within all environmental standards over the previous 20 years, is now being asked to reduce cobalt levels to a limit that is 20 times lower than expert studies have shown to be required and 100 times lower than those set in Poland."

"This is typical of what we are seeing across Europe," comments Jim Ratcliffe, CEO of Ineos. "Regulators are bending over backward to meet the demands of NGOs who are determined to use regulation to strangle the European chemical industry. Their demands are deliberately unreachable and will do nothing to improve the environment but will lead to large-scale deindustrialization and the loss of the livelihoods of thousands of hard-working people."

Purified terephthalic acid is a critical raw material in the production of PET. Ineos claims that the Geel facility is one of the few remaining in Europe and the most efficient in the region, boasting the lowest carbon footprint.
The production process involves a cobalt catalyst, resulting in microscopic amounts of cobalt in the wastewater from the plant. Historically, the plant's permit allowed up to 1,000 micrograms per liter of cobalt in the water, and the typical emission levels have been almost a quarter of that amount.

The site had locally agreed to lower cobalt levels to a maximum of 500 µg/L and eventually to 120 µg/L by 2027, with investments exceeding €20 million. However, this agreement was challenged by two environmental NGOs, forcing a judicial review and the imposition of a new regulatory limit for cobalt. Furthermore, the company notes that the European Water Framework Directive does not even identify cobalt as a priority substance, and neither France nor Germany has imposed such restrictions.

At the close of last year, Ineos revealed its plans to shut down one of the two purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production units at its Geel plant. The decision was driven by escalating operational costs, including energy, raw materials, and labor, which have significantly eroded the competitiveness of European production against cheaper imports from Asia.

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