PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Belgium-based Solvay SA (SLVYY), an advanced materials and specialty chemicals business and France-based Veolia Environnement S.A. (VEOEY) that provides water, waste, and energy management solutions, on Wednesday announced the launch of energy transition project 'Dombasle Énergie'. The project at the Dombasle-sur-Meurthe site would require an investment of 225 million euros and is scheduled to come on stream in 2024.
The project aims to stop the use of fossil fuels by replacing coal imported from abroad with refuse-derived fuel (RDF) produced in France, primarily from the Grand Est region and neighboring regions. The project is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent or 240,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The project consists of replacing three coal-fired boilers with a boiler room equipped with two furnaces running on RDF, produced from waste that cannot be recycled, allowing to halve the carbon footprint of the industrial activity and stop importing 200,000 tons of coal annually.
The new facility, to be built by Solvay and operated by Veolia, would have a capacity of 181 megawatts (MW) thermal power and 17.5 MW electrical power, which would be reused for the industrial process. The site would have a cogeneration unit that uses 350,000 ton of RDF per year, supplied by Veolia as of 2024.
The project forms part of Solvay's sustainable development roadmap, Solvay One Planet, that aims in particular at carbon neutrality by 2050.
The conversion of the plant offers a real advantage in the context of volatile fossil fuel prices and the taxes imposed by European regulations on the use of coal. The gain in competitiveness allows the site to be sustained and the employment pool to be preserved with 1,000 direct and indirect jobs. This project has benefited from the support of the Grand Est region and ADEME.
Shares of Solvay closed Tuesday's trading at $12.28, down $0.13 or 1.05 percent from previous close.
Shares of Veolia Environnement closed Tuesday's trading at $36.60, up $1.10 or 3.10 percent from previous close.
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