ESG Report - Report - Page 24
Reducing, Reusing, Recycling and Repurposing
For Valero, being the most efficient
and reliable operator in a highly
competitive industry means being
a better environmental performer.
We look for ways to reduce
emissions and waste, reusing
energy and byproducts, recycling
materials and repurposing wastes.
• Flare-Gas Recovery Systems
Resulted in More Than 96%
Flaring-Free Operations: In
2022, nearly 80% of Valero’s large
process flares were equipped
with flare-gas recovery systems.
These systems reduce flaring
and air pollution, and recover
fuel gases, which are used to fire
heaters and boilers, reducing
natural gas consumption.
Refinery Energy
Intensity
As a result of refinery optimization more
than 10 years ago, Valero's refinery
energy usage per barrel has declined
over time with capital investments,
including flare-gas recovery and other
energy efficiency projects.
(Million Btu/bbl throughout)
0.43
0.37
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
Note: Our current refining portfolio was consolidated in 2011. Energy intensity increased in 2020
• Sulfur Removal: Sulfur
due to demand-related throughput reductions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
recovered in refining processes
is used for a variety of beneficial
• Energy Efficiency Initiatives: We prioritize
purposes, including crop fertilizer, pharmaceuticals,
improvements in process monitoring and control
detergents and cosmetics. Sulfuric acid is also critical
systems to reduce energy consumption, which in turn
for the extraction of nickel, cobalt and rare earth
reduces costs and carbon emissions.
minerals from their ores.
• Marine Vapor Recovery Units: At certain refineries,
captured vapors generated when loading vessels with
gasoline and other light products are routed back to
the refinery for reprocessing.
• Fuel from Oil Waste: Our high-conversion refineries
are capable of upgrading oil waste into high-value
fuel and products.
• Wastewater Management: Process water and
stormwater are managed at our wastewater
treatment plants. We use bacteria to naturally
digest oil and treat wastewater streams to clean
the water before returning it to the ecosystem. As
part of our environmental management system, we
have an effluent management policy that complies
with environmental laws, including managing and
reducing effluents, monitoring and measurement of
effluents, incident investigation and corrective actions,
as well as extensive reporting of effluent issues.
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• Repurposing of Material Recovered from Tank
Cleaning: Recovered material is reprocessed in our
refineries and upgraded to fuels and other products
or used as fuel at third-party facilities, avoiding landfill
waste.
• Water Recycling: With innovative approaches, we use
each gallon of water on average more than 16 times
prior to evaporation or return to the environment.
• Recycling Exhaust Gases to Reduce Energy
Consumption: Installed at six of our refineries,
expanders use exhaust gases to drive turbines,
converting kinetic energy into electricity and reducing
demand on local grids.
• Heat Transfer: Heat integration technology is used in
our refineries to pair high-temperature streams that
require cooling with lower-temperature streams that
require heating to facilitate heat transfer and reduce
energy consumption.
