An environmental prize worth ATS 80 million has been awarded by the Austrian authorities to a new plant opened by Borealis outside Vienna.
This represents the largest payout made so far from the government's "green" fund, reports Thomas Abel. He is the local manager for the petrochemicals group, which is owned 50 per cent by Statoil.
One reason for the award is that the proprietary Borstar technology, used to produce polypropylene at the plant, cuts carbon dioxide emissions from flaring.
These have been reduced by 60 per cent compared with the two production facilities replaced by the new unit, to just over 9,000 tonnes per year.
Emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have also been cut by 79 per cent to 38.2 tonnes annually.
These reductions have been achieved even though the new plant's annual production capacity, at 200,000 tonnes of polypropylene, is 70,000 tonnes higher than the replaced facilities could manage.