Reduktion af emission fra produktion af opløsningsholdige malinger

5. Summary and conclusions

One of the overall environmental goals for Hempel is to reduce the emission of solvents from production of marine and protective coatings without an increase in the release of CO₂, which is mainly the case in connection with the technology used today.

The objective of this project was to test a number of closed systems for paint production, including closed powder containers, dissolvers, and piping systems. The environmental improvements are described, and the environmental impact on the closed production facilities is compared to the environmental impact from today’s paint production.

On the basis of the results obtained, the following conclusions can be made:

• The use of powder containers provides a considerable work place improvement for the dissolver operators. This is mainly due to reduced contact with powder and reduced volumes of dust in the working enviroment.
• The use of powder containers results in significantly increased loading time.
• The use of powder containers involves logistics difficulties, primarily due to lack of space.
• The use of powder containers results in considerable cleaning problems (i.e. contamination and emission), for which reason powder containers cannot be used today at Hempel, Lundtofte.
• Loading of the new dissolver still takes place in the same way as loading of the conventional dissolver, as a result of which no improvement for the operator has been obtained.
• After loading the dissolver is closed, and the exhaust ventilation is stopped. This means that the new dissolver reduces the emission of organic solvents 17 times as compared to the conventional dissolver.
• Testing of the pigging system has demonstrated that cleaning of the pipes is very efficient.
• The pigging system has not reduced the emission around the operator, as connection and disconnection of the unit is still effected manually.
• Due to the fixed installation it has been difficult and very time-consuming to detect and solve problems within the installation.
• Due to swelling of the material from which the pigs have been produced, the system is not in use today at Hempel, Lundtofte.