The More You Know: Reduced Flaring Cuts SO2 Emissions at Mildred Lake
A little knowledge provided a big payback in reducing sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions at the Mildred Lake upgrading facility.
“Flaring occasionally happens due to maintenance, turnarounds, plant upsets or other outages. But reducing unnecessary flaring in our operations is important because we want to be a good corporate neighbour and we also have regulated limits on how much SO2 we can emit,” says Matt Galachiuk, Manager, Process Engineering, Energy and Utilities at Mildred Lake.
The result saw Mildred Lake reduce SO2 emissions from flaring by 80 per cent from the previous five-year average, a new record low.
“We gathered a large sum of data available to us to help us connect how much SO2 was being emitted from flaring. We put it into a very clear and simple chart and presented it to the (site-wide) teams,” he explains. The teams took that information and made the changes needed.
The initiative had a lot of contributors.
“This was a site-wide effort, not just one or two people or teams. We have so much data and information available, but you need to present it in the right way and put it in front of the right people. When you do that, you’ll get people making better decisions,” says Matt.
