Solvay has announced that the company is set to make its Saint-Fons plant in France a carbon neutral site by 2026, with the addition of a biomass boiler. This equipment, which will go into operation by the end of 2025, is said to allow Solvay to achieve its global target of being carbon neutral ahead of its original target.
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The Saint-Fons site will become the first aroma plant in the world to be powered primarily by renewable energy and it will reach carbon neutrality for its production operations as soon as 2026. Taken together, these measures will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the plant by 75 kilotons per year compared to 2018 levels.
Solvay has entered into a long-term partnership with Dalkia, a subsidiary of the EDF group which specializes in energy services, which will commission and operate. The biomass boiler will use locally-sourced wood waste from building demolition and waste furniture, as fuel to produce steam.
“Our sustainable development roadmap, Solvay One Planet, targets carbon neutrality before 2040 for this business, and I am delighted to see that our Saint-Fons plant is ahead of schedule. We will continue to transform our plants to put sustainable and competitive modes of alternative energy in place to actively contribute to the emergence of a low-carbon society," says Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay. "I am thrilled to have a partner like Dalkia on this project to help us reach our objectives.”
“Solvay is a market leader in the aroma products industry and, with these investments, we will ensure that our Saint-Fons facility is operating sustainably and competitively, which will benefit our customers in the long term,” explains An Nuyttens, president of Solvay’s Aroma Performance business. “The [g]roup is proud to be establishing a new benchmark for vanillin producers worldwide, which, when combined with our Natural Vanillin, will allow us to offer a unique value proposition to customers and consumers."
