Safety equals sustainability

When people talk about sustain­abil­ity, it’s not just about protect­ing the envi­ron­ment, because sustain­abil­ity involves a whole lot more. Evonik Active Oxygens, as a supplier of chem­i­cals, regards the safety of its employ­ees and customers in partic­u­lar as a top priority.

Be it the stor­age, trans­port, or use of hydro­gen perox­ide, peracetic acid or persul­fates, every­one involved must be able to handle the company’s prod­ucts safely. The already strict safety and protec­tion measures that apply in our own company are constantly reviewed and enhanced, and regu­lar train­ing is an essen­tial part of hazard prevention.

And the company also takes respon­si­bil­ity for its customers. After all, many of them are not chem­i­cal compa­nies them­selves but, for exam­ple, chicken farms, brew­eries or dairies that have their exper­tise in other areas. Evonik Active Oxygens, with its many years of exper­tise in handling chem­i­cals, can play its part here in ensur­ing that safety is guar­an­teed at all times.

Customers can there­fore obtain a complete service pack­age from Evonik Active Oxygens to go with the prod­ucts they purchase. This includes …

• … compre­hen­sive personal advice.
• … detailed handling and dosing instructions.
• … current refer­ences to laws and regulations.
• … assis­tance with approval proce­dures and much more.

Three areas of activ­ity are partic­u­larly impor­tant when it comes to provid­ing customers with opti­mum support:

1. Safety train­ing and instruc­tion, safety videos

Evonik’s tech­ni­cal and engi­neer­ing experts offer safety train­ing for the company’s own employ­ees and for customers. There is also a series of safety videos on topics related to day-to-day work. The goal is to ensure that employ­ees and customers always have an aware­ness of the issue of safety: compli­ance with safety regu­la­tions, such as wear­ing safety glasses and cloth­ing, must become a matter of course, to the extent that it no longer needs to be thought about at all. And behav­ior in the event of irreg­u­lar­i­ties should also be prac­ticed, so that those affected know imme­di­ately what to do.

If customers allow their employ­ees to take part in Evonik Active Oxygens safety train­ing and instruc­tion, this has further advan­tages for them: as employ­ers, they fulfill their duty of care, and at the same time, costs result­ing from any outages can be avoided.

2. “Prede­liv­ery inspections”

Hydro­gen perox­ide and the company’s other prod­ucts are shipped all over the world. Espe­cially before bulk deliv­er­ies, Evonik’s safety experts inspect the customer’s facil­i­ties on request and assess whether they meet safety stan­dards. This involves check­ing the stor­age tanks, for exam­ple, as well as pumps, piping and temper­a­ture management.

Above all, however, a water connec­tion must always be nearby to dilute the hydro­gen perox­ide or rinse it off the body in case some­thing should happen, despite all precau­tions being taken. Evonik experts point out all these issues to plant oper­a­tors during a “prede­liv­ery inspec­tion”. Further infor­ma­tion on the safe handling of hydro­gen perox­ide can be found here.

3. Plant engi­neer­ing consultancy

With all these measures, Evonik Active Oxygens wants to ensure that its prod­ucts, which customers require for their own produc­tion purposes, are also handled and stored safely to protect people and the envi­ron­ment. For this reason, the company offers exten­sive consul­tancy services. This also enables them to help customers imple­ment partic­u­larly sustain­able solu­tions in their operations.

For exam­ple, hydro­gen perox­ide experts gener­ally recom­mend to customers that they build a dedi­cated hydro­gen perox­ide tank facil­ity — even if they purchase smaller quan­ti­ties. Hydro­gen perox­ide can be stored safely in this facil­ity, and the deliv­ery of larger quan­ti­ties can also save on trans­porta­tion and thus reduce costs and CO₂  emissions.

If customers opt to do so, Evonik Active Oxygens offers to get involved in the plan­ning and construc­tion of the tank facil­i­ties right from the start. The service ranges from simple consul­tancy to assum­ing full project manage­ment respon­si­bil­ity. Evonik’s experts guide their customers through the jungle of regu­la­tions and conduct hazard analy­ses — always with refer­ence to the special prop­er­ties of hydro­gen perox­ide, peracetic acid or persulfates.

Why is focus­ing on safety sustainable?

Evonik Active Oxygens prod­ucts are chem­i­cals that are envi­ron­men­tally compat­i­ble with their appli­ca­tions. Hydro­gen perox­ide, for exam­ple, breaks down into water and oxygen when used; peracetic acid also produces acetic acid. When handled correctly, the prod­ucts are safe and do not harm the people who work with them. Hydro­gen perox­ide and peracetic acid also decom­pose rapidly in the soil or in the sewage system with almost no risk, if they are diluted appro­pri­ately, and do not cause any envi­ron­men­tally harm­ful changes. To avoid nega­tive conse­quences for people and the envi­ron­ment, the follow­ing always applies: safety first!