WCC – Mercury Reporting to UNEP - European Hg Emissions and Consumption Evolution in 2007

The 2007 figures for the European chlor-alkali industry reported by Euro Chlor showed a further reduction in mercury emissions (air, liquid effluents and products) of about 19% in absolute value (from 5.7 to 4.6 tonnes mercury). This was due to the continuing programme of conversion for shut down of the mercury technology (the installed production capacity with mercury technology went down about 12% compared to 2006), but also to the continued reduction of plant emissions, from a global figure of 1.05 to 0.97 g mercury/tonne chlorine capacity. The emissions in products are at the level of 0.07 g Hg/t Cl2 and quite stable at this low level but a few less performing units still require additional efforts to improve. For the case of liquid effluents, with values at about the same level, the reduction is mainly due to the implementation of the best practices recommended by the industry in some less performing sites. For the emissions into air, the continued improvement results from the efforts made at several sites. There are a few units investigating practical solutions to reduce their emissions.