Environmental Progress Report

For more than 100 years, ExxonMobil has played a proud role as a community partner and environmental steward, and this year was no different. With one of the largest refining and petrochemical complexes in the world, we are continuously optimizing our processes to minimize emissions, enhance energy efficiency and maintain the highest standards for environmental care. Ultimately, our goal is to prevent environmental incidents and improve our environmental performance. Continue reading to learn what we’ve accomplished in the past year to drive environmental progress in the Baytown area and what we’re planning to do in the future.

What we've done

Emissions reductions we've achieved between 2019 and 2022:

15 %

reduction in fugitive volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions at the Baytown Chemical Plant

29 %

reduction in fugitive VOC emissions at the Baytown Refinery

50 %

reduction in fugitive VOC emissions at the Baytown Olefins Plant

82 %

reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from flaring at the Baytown Refinery

38 %

reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from flaring at the Baytown Olefins Plant

Additional reductions:

15% reduction in flare VOC emissions from 2020 to 2022 at our Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant

150 kiloton reduction in total greenhouse gas emissions at our Baytown Olefins Plant from 2021 to 2022

Air quality improvements in the greater Houston area

Greater Houston ozone nonattainment area

1985

A large part of the greater Houston area experienced high levels of ozone.

Data provided by Houston Regional Monitoring

2021

In 2021, ozone levels continued to show improvement.

What we're doing

Driving a lower carbon future for Baytown

ExxonMobil’s Low Carbon Solutions business – launched in February 2021 – is advancing plans for more than 20 new carbon capture and storage (CCS) opportunities around the world to enable large-scale emission reductions, including a major opportunity in Baytown: the Houston Ship Channel hub concept.

What is carbon capture and storage (CCS)?

CCS is the process of capturing CO₂ that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere from industrial activity and injecting it into deep underground geologic formations for safe, secure and permanent storage.

Why CCS?

CCS is one of the only technologies that could enable some industry sectors to decarbonize, such as the refining, chemical, cement and steel sectors. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency agree that CCS is one of the most important low-carbon technologies required to achieve societal climate goals at the lowest cost.

Why the Houston area?

It’s a major industrial area with large, hard-to-decarbonize sectors that are near safe and available CO₂ storage sites in offshore geologic formations. The storage capacity along the U.S. Gulf Coast is around ~500 billion metric tons of CO₂, which is equivalent to more than 130 years of the total U.S. industrial and power generation emissions. The concept also supports the city of Houston’s climate ambitions to become carbon neutral by 2050.

The concept by the numbers

Houston CCS concept could capture:

~50M

metric tons of CO₂ emissions per year by 2030.

The equivalent of taking

20+M

cars off the road

~100M

metric tons of CO₂ emissions per year by 2040.

Would require a collective investment of

~$100B

to reduce emissions at a lower cost to society, protect current jobs and potentially generate tens of thousands of new jobs.

Bringing hydrogen to Baytown, Texas

ExxonMobil is planning a world-scale blue hydrogen plant and one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage projects at our integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown, Texas. The new plant could generate up to one billion cubic feet of hydrogen per day, delivering low-carbon fuel to Baytown area operations and other Houston-area facilities.

watch to learn more about

Blue Hydrogen In Baytown, Texas

What is blue hydrogen?

Blue hydrogen is a low-carbon product manufactured from natural gas. The CO₂ generated during the manufacturing process is captured and stored permanently underground. The result is clean-burning hydrogen that produces no CO₂.

Replacing natural gas with hydrogen at the Baytown olefins plant could reduce the integrated complex's CO₂ emissions by up to 30% compared to current operations. This further supports the company's ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) across our operated assets by 2050. The International Energy Agency sees hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels meeting 10 percent of global energy needs as part of its "Net Zero by 2050" scenario.

Where does CCS fit in?

The carbon capture and storage project included in this plan would be one of the world’s largest, capable of storing up to 10 million metric tons of CO₂ per year – equal to the emissions from more than two million cars. This carbon capture and storage facility would mark ExxonMobil’s initial contribution to the Houston CCS hub concept.

What’s next?

Evaluation and planning for the Baytown project are ongoing and, subject to stakeholder support, regulatory permitting and market conditions, a final investment decision is expected in two to three years.

View an illustration of how hydrogen works at Baytown

PROGRESSING ADVANCED RECYCLING

Advanced recycling

ExxonMobil successfully started up of one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America. The facility at the company’s integrated manufacturing complex in Baytown, Texas, uses proprietary technology to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and transform them into raw materials for new products. It is capable of processing more than 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year, supporting a circular economy for post-use plastics and helping divert plastic waste currently sent to landfills.