Achema Grants Substantial Bonuses to Employees for Implementing Environmental Ideas

Every year, Achema organises a competition for rationalisation proposals. Employees are invited to submit their suggestions to help save energy, improve work safety, or contribute to the environmental protection.

At the end of the year, the evaluation committee awarded two teams with the most rational and innovative proposals.

Cleaner Manufacture

The first place in the competition went to the project by Mantas Sungaila, Chief Engineer of the production management department, and department engineer Povilas Trapenskis from ammonia plant No. 2.

The men came up with the idea of reducing natural gas consumption for ammonia production using CO2 impure fraction gas. Reducing the demand for natural gas would reduce carbon emissions and make production cleaner.

M. Songaila says he has chosen the ammonia workshop because he is familiar with the production technology as he has worked in this plant for several years.

“We were looking for information on how ammonia production is being modernised in foreign factories, how colleagues deal with these issues. We chose the idea, discussed it with managers and submitted a proposal for the competition,” says one of the idea’s collaborators.

The Idea Came from Encountering a Problem

The second place in the competition was awarded to the idea of Vladas Autukas, technologist of the Plumbing Workshop, Algirdas Rugis, a mechanic, and Audrius Sinkevičius, a shift engineer.

The men offered to protect the water intake of the K-382 I lift pumping station from sediment. The project aims to reduce the ingress of tree branches, leaves, soils, or plastics carried on the Neris River into the pumping station receiver.

Technologist V. Autukas says that this idea was conceived in the autumn, during routine cleaning work on the pumping station enclosure.

“The problem is that in spring and autumn, the Neris water is full of leaves, grass, branches or scum. They clog the water intake chambers. Service personnel must regularly clean the water intake grates. We have therefore proposed this solution. We hope that it will reduce the pollution of the enclosure, help ensure the reliability of water intake, and improve the working conditions of the operators,” says the technologist.

The projects were evaluated in terms of their implementation costs, timeframe, as well as economic and environmental impact. The initiative aims to encourage employees to share their ideas and thus contribute to the common goal of being a progressive, sustainable business leader open to innovation.