Recycling Process

For Valero, being the most efficient and reliable operator in a highly competitive industry means being the most environmentally responsible. Throughout our history, we have advanced environmental stewardship, process safety and reliability through innovation, and finding solutions by recycling, reusing, reclaiming and reducing resources, materials, emissions, energy or waste. 

Valero operations achieved the following in 2020:

• 2.5 million gallons of waste repurposed as fuel at third-party facilities, displacing more than 8,500 tons of coal and creating 35,800 tons of carbon offsets
• 94% of all refinery exempted* and hazardous wastes were recycled
• 48% of all hazardous waste was recycled, including 15.6 million pounds of catalyst

*Refers to exempted hazardous waste as per regulatory classifications

Carbon-capture technology recovers carbon dioxide that otherwise would go into the atmosphere and concentrates it for reuse. In 2013, Valero’s Port Arthur refinery became the first industrial site in the U.S. to host a large-scale carbon-sequestration project, and it remains the only U.S. refinery doing so, with more than 1 million tons captured each year.

Two steam methane reformer units, owned by a business partner that produces hydrogen for the refinery from natural gas, were retrofitted to capture the carbon dioxide produced in the process of making hydrogen.

The project¹ involves capturing high-concentration CO₂ streams produced in the fermentation process at our ethanol plants. 

The removal of CO₂ from our ethanol plants has the potential to further reduce the carbon intensity of this low-carbon fuel be more than 40% and significantly contribute to our GHG emissions reduction/offset target.

¹Working with BlackRock Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund III and Navigator Energy Services expected to be completed by 2024.