Adisseo

Environment

Adisseo constantly aims to reduce the impact of its activities on the environment. To this end the company has rallied together to reach the public environmental objectives it set in 2018, while contributing to UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Environmental Policy

Our ambition is to reduce the environmental impact of animal protein production in all areas (eco-systems, climate change, biodiversity, depletion of resources, pollution). All of our innovation and development projects follow our sustainability principles:
• To integrate environmental considerations as of product inception and throughout its lifecycle,
• To reduce the environmental impact of our existing entities.

It leans on the six following drivers:
• Reduce our impact on the environment in terms of climate change, air pollution, water pollution by limiting our emissions and protect our neighborhood from any nuisances
• Optimize our natural resources consumption: water, energy
• Reduce our own quantity of produced waste by supporting products reusing and waste’s recycling
• From unit design and during all the cycle life of our products, consider process, products risks and environmental impacts in order to guarantee the lowest effects on the environment
• Prepare the organization for potential emergency situations management
• Minimize risk by investigation of near-misses and incidents

COMMITTED TO CLIMATE PROTECTION

Climate change is one of the major challenges facing society and one on which we must act as quickly as possible. This global challenge is at the heart of Adisseo’s concerns.
In 2021, Adisseo committed to contribute to the collective goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.
In 2022, Adisseo revised its short-term environmental objectives, namely:
• A 21% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms between 2020 and 2025. This target is aligned with the 1.5°C SBT (Science Based Targets) trajectory and the Paris Agreement.
• A 13% reduction in its absolute energy consumption between 2020 and 2025 including business growth.

In 2022, Adisseo initiated a process with Carbone 4 (a leading French sustainable development consultancy) to establish its carbon reduction roadmap to 2050.
This work consisted first of all of a critical review of the measurement of the company’s carbon footprint on all its perimeters. It confirmed Adisseo’s estimates and refined them by looking in greater depth at regional data according to the countries where the company’s activities are located.
Within the framework of a project group, 4 themes were analysed in detail:
• Raw material purchases
• Energy
• Logistics and transport
• Processes
This approach has already enabled Adisseo to verify that its short-term objectives for greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption were relevant.

 

Supply of electricity 55% of the company's electricity purchases

are of renewable or decarbonated origin

Did you know

The earth is

1.1°C

warmer than it was at the start of the industrial revolution.
On the current path of CO2 emissions, the global temperature is expected to increase
by 3 to 5°C by the end of century.

 

 

 

Adisseo’s commitment to environment in actions

Decarbonising ADISSEO’s industrial sites

The objectives of decarbonisation of industry cannot be achieved without the implementation of breakthrough technologies such as the use of hydrogen or carbon capture and sequestration.
These new technologies are part of the research process conducted by Adisseo in its strategy to  decarbonise its industrial activities.
The possibility of boosting its hydrogen sulphide (H2S) production workshop at the Saint Clair du Rhône site (France) with hydrogen has been demonstrated in order to replace some of the methane used until now as a raw material. This technology limits the production of sulphur co-products and reduces energy consumption. Overall, the site’s greenhouse gas emissions have been significantly reduced.
At the end of 2022, Adisseo signed a partnership agreement with Air Liquide to create an underground pressurised hydrogen pipeline to supply the Saint Clair du Rhône site. This pipeline will be commissioned in early 2024.
In addition, Air Liquide is committed to the construction of a new Hydrogen production workshop at the nearby Roussillon (France) platform. This SMR-type unit (Steam Methane Reforming) will be equipped with a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture system to reduce emissions to a minimum. The carbon dioxide will then be reused directly as a raw material in the methionine production workshop at the Roussillon plant and in the other workshops of the platform.
With a strategy based on the use of hydrogen, Adisseo confirms its commitment to sustainable, low-carbon development for its European production platform.

Saving energy resources

Energy crisis, risk of shortage, economic weight… Energy efficiency has become a major issue for society, whether for individuals or companies.
Adisseo has always paid particular attention to its management of energy resources.
In 2022, the company was a signatory of the ECOWATT charter in France. This charter is offered by RTE (electricity transmission network manager) and Ademe (Agency for Ecological Transition). By signing this charter, Adisseo has committed to implementing good practices in terms of electricity consumption:
• As an employer – through actions to raise employee awareness.
• As a consumer – through actions to moderate electricity consumption (lowering the heating temperature/modernising lighting/automating shut-offs, etc.).
These measures, which are mainly aimed at Adisseo’s administrative buildings, complement the company’s efforts to reduce consumption at its industrial sites around the world.
The Sunflower project, which began in 2020, is an example of an initiative that fits perfectly with Adisseo’s desire to limit its energy consumption, increase its efficiency and indirectly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. In its production workshops, the company’s energy performance is closely monitored to adapt operating parameters in order to constantly optimise consumption. Any loss of  energy is identified, and each employee proposes ideas to remedy the situation.
Several savings projects have been carried out.
The Venus project, representing an investment of nearly € 1 million, was commissioned in Q1 2022 at the methionine production site in Commentry (France). It involves the installation of process energy recovery exchangers. The same improvement idea was implemented at the Roussillon plant in 2021.
In 2022, the ARES project was also defined for the methionine production plant in Roussillon (France) for an investment of € 800 k, leading to an energy recovery of a process flow equivalent to more than 2t/h of steam.
This type of equipment already exists on the same process unit at our Nanjing site (China).

Water, a valuable resource

Water conservation is a major global issue. Adisseo, a responsible company, is aware of this and has been working for a long time to optimise its consumption.
Food industry activities consume water, mainly in the cleaning phases of formulation installations, between production campaigns.
The search for water savings is based on 3 axes:
• Research into increasing the size of production batches to reduce the number of cleaning operations
• Optimising production planning according to product families to favour dry cleaning
• Getting the right result on the fi rst go to avoid reprocessing
Within our subsidiary Innov’ia, water consumption has been reduced by 10% between 2020 and 2022.
Adisseo has set a target of reducing its water consumption intensity (quantity of water used per ton
of product manufactured) by 20% by 2025, compared to 2015.
A working group on the reduction of water consumption is now operational for the GREEN project, which also aims to reduce aqueous effluents and waste volumes generated by our activities. In addition to seeking direct savings, recycling is the other preferred solution.