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Curbing emissions from U.S. processing facilities
In 2003, ADM embarked on a 10-year plan to reduce emissions at our major U.S. processing plants as part of an agreement with the U.S. government and several state governments. By the end of 2007, we had reduced emissions of targeted volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by 79 percent — or approximately 13,000 tons per year — from 2003 levels as a result of capital improvements and process refinements at our U.S. corn processing plants.
Those improvements include the installation of 18 regenerative thermal oxidizers, or RTOs, at ADM corn plants in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Minnesota. RTOs are highly effective at removing greater than 95 percent of VOCs from process streams. In 2009, we will be installing four additional units in Decatur that will begin operating in 2011.
By the end of our 2009 fiscal year, meanwhile, we were nearly two-thirds of the way to our target of reducing approximately 63,000 tons of emissions of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter by 2012.
The Company has also upgraded equipment in many plants that will improve energy efficiency and ultimately lead to additional emission reductions.
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