Each kilogram of saved CO2 counts

OKK Koksovny is working on more environmentally friendly, safer coke production and, in the future, this will include bio-coke too. It voluntarily invests in public spaces in cooperation with the city of Ostrava and the Moravian-Silesian Region.

OKK Koksovny invests in the environment, safety, and modernization. Each year, these investments amount to around 300 million CZK. The key theme that surrounds these investments is their sustainability and adaptability to market changes as well as political and societal pressure for environmental protections.

“In some sectors, the opportunities are great in terms of sustainability, in others less, which is our case. In coke production, there are insurmountable physical and chemical laws which are associated with inevitable CO2 emissions. There’s nothing we can do about that. We want to focus on the emissions that we actually can reduce,” explains Pavel Woznica, Executive Director of OKK Koksovny. However, these inevitable emissions remain a key discussion point and the company is working on how to deal with them moving forward, or at least how to compensate for them.

Voluntary agreements with Ostrava and the Moravian-Silesian Region

First and foremost, continuous investment in sustainability means that the company will continue to operate and comply with all legal requirements. However, the company is also voluntarily investing beyond the mandatory framework. It is also looking for investments that will streamline operations, which include energy savings and solar energy. "We need to identify every opportunity, every detail, to reduce energy consumption and thus, indirectly, our carbon emissions. Each kilogram of saved CO2 counts,” points out Woznica.

The coke plant complies with every rule and uses the latest approved technology, but wants to go further still. The company has entered into two voluntary agreements with the city of Ostrava and the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has committed to keep investing in environmental and social schemes. These commitments concern the impact the coking plant has on the surrounding environment, despite being far from the biggest polluter in the region. This includes regular cleaning of the site of the coke plant and the adjacent streets, as well as increased battery maintenance. Part of the voluntary agreements is supporting cultural and sporting activities in the city and cultivating public spaces.

Current projects

Eliminating fugitive emissions from benzene distillation is an important environmental investment. This is a development project and the first rounds of investments have already shown results. This year, the technology will be improved even further and should be ready by next year. “We want to increase the performance of our unit and adapt it to our operation using the experience we have gathered. The effect will be more noticeable,” says Pavel Woznica, commenting on the project, which forms part of the voluntary agreement with the Moravian-Silesian Region. "I would like to highlight this investment. It reduces fugitive benzene emissions by extracting them and chemically breaking them down into simple compounds that don’t harm the environment. It also reduces odor pollution in the surrounding environment. We will always be open to innovation, especially when a new technology emerges that makes sense for us to utilize and will reduce our emissions. It’s definitely worth trying to reduce emissions even further,” he adds.

Another major investment is land remediation and restoration of the former Jan Šverma Coking Plant in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance. “It’s currently the largest environmental project in Ostrava. The end result is a clean site that reduces the environmental impact on the city,” says Pavel Woznica.

Bio-coke is on the company’s radar

The investments don’t end there. In cooperation with VSB-TUO, the company is researching hydrogen extraction from coke furnace gas as an alternative fuel source. Together, they also want to look into additional coke battery dedusting that goes beyond BAT — another voluntary investment. They are also working with MTX Renewables to focus on bio-coke production, since ESG and decarbonization are such a key priority for their customers. “Finding a suitable biological component is not easy, but I believe that MTX Renewables will help us succeed and give us a competitive edge,” concludes Woznica.

OKK Koksovny

OKK Koksovny produces coke – a raw material used not only for ironmaking and iron casting, but also for a number of other industries. The company uses all types of coal suitable for coking. OKK Koksovny is the largest European producer of top-quality foundry coke. It offers a wide range of cokes for foundry, metallurgy, special metallurgy, heating, and other purposes. The remaining products in its portfolio are chemical coke products that are formed during high-temperature coal carbonization.