Seqens’ commitment to reducing its carbon footprint

On the occasion of the visit of Mrs. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Industry, to the Roussillon platform (38), SEQENS confirms its commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of its activities.

The roadmap for the decarbonization of our industry by 2030

On May 7, 2021, GIE OSIRIS, organisation managing the Roussillon platform, and all of the platform’s industrials had the honor of welcoming Mrs. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, in charge of Industry, to France’s leading chemical industry platform.

This was an opportunity for France Chimie to present the roadmap for decarbonization of our industry by 2030. This roadmap is perfectly illustrated by the exemplary trajectory of the Roussillon platform, which was launched more than 10 years ago. The plaform aims at becoming one of the first low-carbon platforms in Europe by 2023. This objective will be achievable thanks in particular to the DecarbRON project, which was supported by the French recovery package.

In line with the commitments made in the French Climate Business Pledge, Seqens presented its concrete results in terms of carbon emissions reduction. In less than 10 years, on the Roussillon platform, Seqens has reduced its carbon emissions by 75% while increasing its production by 50%, i.e. a reduction of its carbon intensity by 85%.

An ambitious program to reduce our carbon footprint

At the end of the decarbonation round table, Seqens detailed to the Minister, the main axes and levers of its ambitious program of reduction of the its carbon footprint:

• Accelerate the low-carbon transition of our energy production. In Roussillon, the platform has moved in less than 10 years from an energy mix of 80% fossil fuels (gas and coal) to a mix in which 75% of the energy production is of renewable or recovered origin;
• Reducing the energy consumption of our activities. Our sites on the platform are ISO 50001 and we are committed with the local authorities in very ambitious energy performance plans. Seqens has reduced the specific energy consumption of its workshops by more than 10% over the last 5 years and is now the benchmark in Europe;
• Investing in innovation and breakthrough technologies. Building on its capacity for innovation and development of new high-performance, competitive and clean processes and technologies, Seqens regularly invests in the best available technologies: the IPAC production workshop received the Pierre Potier prize for sustainable chemistry in 2016 from Emmanuel Macron, then Minister of the Economy, for its reactive distillation developed with IFPEn. The new isopropanol production workshop has 66% lower energy consumption than the recently installed workshop, which was already at the benchmark. The future paracetamol workshop will be based on flow chemistry technology, like our salicylic acid production workshop, which will enable us to divide CO2 emissions, air emissions and aqueous effluents by 5.

New investments to continue OUR decarbonization trajectory

On this strategic, competitive and low-carbon platform, on which the group has invested more than €100 million over the past five years in its fully integrated activities, Seqens plans to double its investment over the next five years and to continue its decarbonization trajectory, which began when the group was created in 2008 and has accelerated in recent years.

Thanks to its integration in the value chain and its capacity to innovate in clean and efficient technologies, Seqens confirms its commitment to reduce the carbon intensity of its activities by more than 60% by 2025 compared to 2008. Our Roussillon platform has already largely exceeded this objective and I would like to thank all of our teams for the significant efforts they have made to constantly improve our processes and thus contribute to the fight against global warming.