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Pledge Award Finalist
Converting Waste Hydrogen into Usable Steam Reduces Carbon Dioxide Emission
For many years, the Monsanto facility in Antwerp, Belgium, has purchased chlorine and hydrogen by pipeline from an adjacent manufacturer for use in several processes. After installing a new combined heat and power unit a few years ago, our site developed a slight surplus in steam and therefore needed less hydrogen to fuel the conventional boilers. At the same time, the neighboring company began using a new technology in its chlorine production process that required more steam and generated more hydrogen. However, that company did not have the boiler capacity onsite to transform the hydrogen into steam.
Teams from the two facilities identified ways we could share resources that would benefit both companies. After a few modifications and the installation of a steam line, the excess hydrogen from our neighbor is now converted into steam at our site, and steam from our operations is transported back to the neighbor.
The energy saved through the optimized distribution of steam and hydrogen is equivalent to 2,250 tons (4.5 million pounds) of crude oil a year, and our site reduced carbon dioxide emission by 5,300 tons a year. In addition, Monsanto is saving an estimated $420,000 a year in energy costs and $600,000 a year in fixed-cost absorption.
Improvements to the Dairy Sharps- Disposal Services Program Benefit Producers and the Environment
In 2003, the Dairy Manufacturing Team and the Distribution Center in Augusta, Georgia, undertook environmental improvements to the voluntary sharps-disposal program for its Posilac bovine somatotropin customers. This program provides our Posilac customers with supplies and services for the removal and destruction of their sharp syringes, which might otherwise end up in local landfills.
To improve the program, the team developed a database to manage and forecast supply and pickup services. It improved the mail-back kit design with better ergonomics and increased its capacity from 350 syringes to 1,600. These improvements to the sharps-disposal program increased our customer participation. In 2005, 76 percent of syringes purchased through the system were destroyed this way.
Improvements in the efficiency of the program also reduced total program costs by $1.5 million. Thus, the program has economic, environmental, and safety benefits for our customers, as well as environmental benefits for communities in which they operate by reducing potential exposure to medical waste.
