Saturday, July 10, 2010
SINCE the first exported shipment of methanol in late May this year, Brunei has been exporting methanol to the rest of the world once every three days.
But even as these industrial developments take place, the Brunei government continues to maintain its pro-sustainability stance on the environment with projects like the Heart of Borneo.
Brunei Methanol Company Sdn Bhd Deputy Chief Executive Officer Mohd Reduan Mohd Hj Yusof however, assures that Brunei Methanol is striving hard to obtain an ISO 14001:2400 certification for their environment management system by the first quarter of 2011.
Mohd Reduan talks to The Brunei Times about how BMC prevents the negative side effects of methanol production on the environment.
BT: How does BMC protect the environment from methanol production?
Mohd Redzuan: We protect the environment with two fronts, first is through compliance. BMC is an international project financed, financed by a consortium of banks, led by the conventional bank. One of the conditions is we must adhere to the World Bank Environmental Protection Guidelines.
These guidelines are used by the World Bank for use by any country. We have these guidelines we have to comply with.
And the second front?
We have to comply with the vessel convention. Why we comply with vessel convention is because we export through sea.
Also, Brunei has its own regulations and on top of that we are also striving to certify ourselves with the ISO 14001:2400 for environmental management system.
We try to comply with all of this and at the same time, the physical needs of the environment.
In our methanol plant here we have a water treatment facility. There are standards as to how we treat our waste water.
We treat it before we release it and according to the standards of river water, which is much more stringent and severe as compared to the quality of sea water.
There are only two standards, sea or river. We follow standards in accordance to river water, meaning we can drink the treated water directly. That shows how clean it is.
What other plans does BMC have in place for water treatment?
We also have a water treatment cooling tower. This obligation is set in our land lease in agreement with Sungai Liang, that whatever water we use, we treat.
Unlike oil and gas, we don't flare, because the gas is used to convert into methanol.
We only flare if there is a plant shut down, in order to protect the plant so it doesn't explode.
Otherwise, everything is sucked into the plant and converted into methanol. We need natural gas to convert to methanol so we don't flare.
At night, the smoke in the air that you see if you drive pass our facility it's not really smoke, it's just steam.
The steam is put into a plant and imposed as methanol CH3OH.
We use the steam reaction with the gas and make liquid methanol, making our samples look exactly like water with a spirit smell. There are many grades that supply to different industries. Brunei's is a higher grade and demanded in pharmaceuticals mainly because it's so pure.
In the pharmaceutical industry, they don't want any pollutants inside the methanol.
So the use of methanol in products is actually quite environmentally friendly then?
European countries are driving the use of methanol now even. This is mainly because they want to reduce pollution from materials which were derived from petroleum.
The problem is, materials with petroleum burns with a black smoke, so now they are switching to methanol. If the product burns, it's just a white smoke which is less pollution. Thus, reducing atmospheric pollution as it's all about turning the global industry into a clean industry.
What about BMC's Corporate Social Responsibility towards the community?
BMC has been involved in a number of community activities in the past. We had dialogue sessions with the residents in this area about the construction works and so on.
Now that BMC is a finished projected, our community service programme is to help recover the recreation area at Sungai Liang.
This project cost a total of $160,000 and besides that we have a few other activities, for example Japanese culture events targeted at residents living in Sungai Liang.
Other events for the community which is in our planning stages, to hold a charity project for Lumut-Liang, where we will provide help for the preparation of Hari Raya.
The Brunei Times
But even as these industrial developments take place, the Brunei government continues to maintain its pro-sustainability stance on the environment with projects like the Heart of Borneo.
Brunei Methanol Company Sdn Bhd Deputy Chief Executive Officer Mohd Reduan Mohd Hj Yusof however, assures that Brunei Methanol is striving hard to obtain an ISO 14001:2400 certification for their environment management system by the first quarter of 2011.
Mohd Reduan talks to The Brunei Times about how BMC prevents the negative side effects of methanol production on the environment.
BT: How does BMC protect the environment from methanol production?
Mohd Redzuan: We protect the environment with two fronts, first is through compliance. BMC is an international project financed, financed by a consortium of banks, led by the conventional bank. One of the conditions is we must adhere to the World Bank Environmental Protection Guidelines.
These guidelines are used by the World Bank for use by any country. We have these guidelines we have to comply with.
And the second front?
We have to comply with the vessel convention. Why we comply with vessel convention is because we export through sea.
Also, Brunei has its own regulations and on top of that we are also striving to certify ourselves with the ISO 14001:2400 for environmental management system.
We try to comply with all of this and at the same time, the physical needs of the environment.
In our methanol plant here we have a water treatment facility. There are standards as to how we treat our waste water.
We treat it before we release it and according to the standards of river water, which is much more stringent and severe as compared to the quality of sea water.
There are only two standards, sea or river. We follow standards in accordance to river water, meaning we can drink the treated water directly. That shows how clean it is.
What other plans does BMC have in place for water treatment?
We also have a water treatment cooling tower. This obligation is set in our land lease in agreement with Sungai Liang, that whatever water we use, we treat.
Unlike oil and gas, we don't flare, because the gas is used to convert into methanol.
We only flare if there is a plant shut down, in order to protect the plant so it doesn't explode.
Otherwise, everything is sucked into the plant and converted into methanol. We need natural gas to convert to methanol so we don't flare.
At night, the smoke in the air that you see if you drive pass our facility it's not really smoke, it's just steam.
The steam is put into a plant and imposed as methanol CH3OH.
We use the steam reaction with the gas and make liquid methanol, making our samples look exactly like water with a spirit smell. There are many grades that supply to different industries. Brunei's is a higher grade and demanded in pharmaceuticals mainly because it's so pure.
In the pharmaceutical industry, they don't want any pollutants inside the methanol.
So the use of methanol in products is actually quite environmentally friendly then?
European countries are driving the use of methanol now even. This is mainly because they want to reduce pollution from materials which were derived from petroleum.
The problem is, materials with petroleum burns with a black smoke, so now they are switching to methanol. If the product burns, it's just a white smoke which is less pollution. Thus, reducing atmospheric pollution as it's all about turning the global industry into a clean industry.
What about BMC's Corporate Social Responsibility towards the community?
BMC has been involved in a number of community activities in the past. We had dialogue sessions with the residents in this area about the construction works and so on.
Now that BMC is a finished projected, our community service programme is to help recover the recreation area at Sungai Liang.
This project cost a total of $160,000 and besides that we have a few other activities, for example Japanese culture events targeted at residents living in Sungai Liang.
Other events for the community which is in our planning stages, to hold a charity project for Lumut-Liang, where we will provide help for the preparation of Hari Raya.
The Brunei Times
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