SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Public Version
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS Public Version Legal name of applicant(s): AkzoNobel Pulp and Performance Chemicals Submitted by: AkzoNobel Pulp and Performance Chemicals Substance: Sodium dichromate Use title: Use 1: Use of sodium dichromate as an additive for suppressing parasitic reactions and oxygen evolution, pH buffering and cathode corrosion protection in the electrolytic manufacture of sodium chlorate, with or without subsequent production of chlorine dioxide Use 2: Use of sodium dichromate as an additive for suppressing parasitic reactions and oxygen evolution, pH buffering and cathode corrosion protection in the electrolytic manufacture of potassium chlorate. Use number: 1 & 2 Disclaimer This report has been prepared by Risk & Policy Analysts Ltd, with reasonable skill, care and diligence under a contract to the client and in accordance with the terms and provisions of the contract. Risk & Policy Analysis Ltd will accept no responsibility towards the client and third parties in respect of any matters outside the scope of the contract. This report has been prepared for the client and we accept no liability for any loss or damage arising out of the provision of the report to third parties. Any such party relies on the report at their own risk. Note This public version of the Socio-Economic Analysis includes some redacted text. The letters indicated within each piece of redacted text correspond to the type of justification for confidentiality claims which is included as an Annex (Section 6) in the complete version of the document. Table of Contents 1 Summary of Socio-Economic Analysis....................................................................................1 1.1 Description of the use and importance of sodium dichromate......................................................1 1.2 Requested review period................................................................................................................1 1.3 Human health impacts from the continued use of Sodium Dichromate........................................1 1.4 Economic and social benefits from the continued use of sodium dichromate ..............................2 2 Aims and scope of SEA..........................................................................................................5 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................5 2.2 The applicant...................................................................................................................................6 2.3 The Supply Chain.............................................................................................................................8 2.4 Definition of the “applied-for-use” scenario ................................................................................18 2.5 Definition of “non-use” scenarios.................................................................................................20 2.6 Information for the length of the review period ..........................................................................28 3 Analysis of impacts............................................................................................................. 31 3.1 Human Health Impacts .................................................................................................................31 3.2 Environmental impacts .................................................................................................................41 3.3 Economic impacts .........................................................................................................................44 3.4 Social impacts................................................................................................................................62 3.5 Wider economic impacts ..............................................................................................................67 4 Combined Assessment of Impacts....................................................................................... 73 4.1 Comparison of impacts .................................................................................................................73 4.2 Distributional impacts...................................................................................................................75 4.3 Uncertainty analysis......................................................................................................................77 5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................ 83 5.1 Socio-economic benefits of continued use...................................................................................83 5.2 Residual risks to human health and the environment of continued use......................................83 5.3 Factors concerning operating conditions, risk management measures and monitoring arrangements........................................................................................................................................84 5.4 Factors relating to the duration of the review period..................................................................84 6 Annex – Justifications for confidentiality claims................................................................... 85 7 Appendix 1 – Information Sources....................................................................................... 87 8 Appendix 2 - Demographics ................................................................................................ 89 8.1 Demographics of the areas associated with AkzoNobel’s Sites....................................................89 Declaration We, AkzoNobel Pulp and Performance Chemicals, request that the information blanked out in the “public version” of the Socio-Economic Analysis is not disclosed. We hereby declare that, to the best of our knowledge as of today 2015-10-21 the information is not publicly available, and in accordance with the due measures of protection that we have implemented, a member of the public should not be able to obtain access to this information without our consent or that of the third party whose commercial interests are at stake. Bohus, 2015-10-21 Ingrid Brassart Regulatory Affairs Manager 1 Summary of Socio-Economic Analysis 1.1 Description of the use and importance of sodium dichromate Sodium dichromate (EC number: 234-190-3, CAS number: 10588-01-9 (anhydrous), 7789-12-0 (dihydrate)) is a process chemical used in the manufacture of sodium chlorate at AkzoNobel’s sites in Finland, France and Sweden. The chlorate process produces hydrogen that is used for a variety of purposes by the applicant, including the provision of municipal heating to the local communities. The chlorate producing sites also have other processes that rely on or benefit from integration to the sodium chlorate process. Some of these processes would not be able to proceed without the linkage to sodium chlorate and so it would not be possible to manufacture them under a non-use scenario for sodium dichromate. The EU is currently almost 100% self-sufficient in the production of sodium chlorate, accounting for around 19% of global production. Sodium chlorate is used in the Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) chemical bleaching process. The ECF process accounts for around 93% of all bleached chemical pulp in the EU. Roughly 73% of pulp in the EU is bleached. The remaining 7% of bleached pulp is produced via the Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) process. Both processes use hydrogen peroxide as a bleaching agent. Loss of EU sodium chlorate supplies would have a significant impact on the EU pulp and paper industry. As a minimum, costs of pulp bleaching would increase due to the need to transport sodium chlorate, a hazardous substance, long distances from South or North America – the two regions with the greatest current sodium chlorate production capacity. Furthermore, new investment will be required in other regions of the world to increase sodium chlorate production capacity in order to meet the loss of European supply. In the short term, it is therefore likely that prices of sodium chlorate would increase significantly on the global market, as a result of these two factors. Some smaller EU pulp producers may find themselves significantly disadvantaged compared to larger EU competitors and non-EU competitors due to more limited ability to absorb costs in the short term. 1.2 Requested review period AkzoNobel currently knows of no technically feasible alternative that ensures the same high level of process safety and energy efficiency for the use of sodium dichromate in the production of sodium chlorate. The company believes that at least '''#A#'' ''''''''''' is required from 2017 in order to undertake the R&D necessary to develop an alternative and to prove this at the industrial level, for example to achieve the same cathode lifetime. Once a new viable technology has been identified, it will need to be piloted and scaled up to industrial production levels. Therefore, the applicant submits this Application for Authorisation with a request for a review period of '''#A#'' '''''''''' to allow a viable replacement for sodium dichromate to be developed (see Section 2.6). 1.3 Human health impacts from the continued use of Sodium Dichromate AkzoNobel employs '''#D#'''' people who may be exposed at very low levels to sodium dichromate in the production of the chlorate. All processes at the plant