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Statistics
roughly 0.5% of total volatile organic
compound (VOC) emissions produced by
human activity, with Group facilities
accounting for half this total. To reduce
these emissions, the Group is leading a
proactive, three-pronged policy:
- Optimizing paint shops, by reducing the
use of conventional paints and related
solvents, introducing low-solvent paints
and recycling used solvents.
- Deploying clean technologies like waterbased
paints and powder primers in new
facilities.
- Installing air treatment equipment to
incinerate VOCs.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES CUT PAINT SHOP VOC EMISSIONS IN POISSY, MULHOUSE
AND PORTO REAL
In 1997, to reduce VOC emissions from its paint shop, the Poissy plant implemented the ambitious
RAPPY program, comprising water-based primer and enamel lines and incinerators for VOCs released
in the drying ovens. The resulting process, which is already compliant with the most stringent
environmental standards, has helped cut VOC emissions by two-thirds, from 3,500 metric tons in 1988
to 1,180 tons in 2002, even though production increased by around 30% over the same period.
Improved versions of these technologies are being installed at the Mulhouse plant, where VOC emissions
are currently estimated at around 6.5 kilograms per vehicle.
Now under construction, the new shop is expected to halve this figure, to 3.3 kilograms per vehicle.
The total cost will be €230 million, of which €45 million dedicated to environmental safeguards.
The Porto Real plant in Brazil, inaugurated in January 2001, is also equipped with a paint shop compliant
with the latest environmental standards.
These measures have helped reduce VOC
emissions from the French paint shops to
an average 5.4 kilograms per vehicle in
2002, from a range of 10 to 13 kilograms
per vehicle, depending on the site, in
1988. Worldwide, VOC emissions totalled
5.7 kilograms per vehicle in 2002.
Continued systematic implementation of
the best, most cost-effective solutions will
enable the Group to meet the limits set
for 2007 in the European Union directive
on reducing VOC emissions.
• A steady decline in other regulated
emissions
By substituting natural gas—or low or very
low-sulfur fuel oil—for conventional fuel
oil, sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) emissions from the
Group’s power plants have been reduced
by 65% over the past ten years. At the
Vigo plant, SO 2 emissions dropped from
13,500 metric tons a year to zero when
natural gas replaced fuel oil as the main
source of energy.
Nitrogen oxide (NO x ) emissions have been
curbed by installing high-tech burners in
new facilities. Volumes have declined by
around 20% in Europe since 1995, according
to data from the Industrial Environment
Observatory set up by the Group to track the
environmental performance of its facilities.
LOWERING ENERGY CONSUMPTION
All automotive processes are energy
intensive, whether foundry work, the
cooling of machine tools, paint drying or
heat treatment processes. The Group is
committed to developing action plans to
reduce energy consumption at all its
automobile plants. Among the most
remarkable initiatives undertaken in recent
years has been the installation of waste-
PSA PEUGEOT CITROËN - MANAGING BOARD REPORT 77