Page 169 - CW E-Magazine (3-10-2023)

News from Abroad

high value-added compounds containing methane unit, which will receive feed
up to 50% recycled plastic material. In stock in the form of organic waste
addition to the mechanical recycling unit, from the biorefinery, will prevent the
a specific centre will be established that emission of almost 20,000 tons of
provides technical assistance to custo- CO per year. Its annual capacity of
2
mers and develops new products, in order 80 gigawatt-hours (GWh) represents
to provide sufficient support for the the average annual demand of 16,000
commercialisation of the new range of people.
hybrid compounds. * Advanced and mechanical recy-
. Mr. Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & cling: with two recycling units, one
One year after investing in a new Chemicals at TotalEnergies. for advanced recycling with capacity
production line that makes high-perfor- to treat 15,000 tons of waste a year,
mance recycled polypropylene for the Zero-crude platform and another a mechanical recycling
automotive sector in its plant at Carling, In September 2020, in line with its unit announced today, Grandpuits is
the company is now expanding its recy- aim to get to net zero by 2050, Total- establishing itself as a major French
cled polymer offering with this new unit Energies launched a project to convert recycling site.
at Grandpuits. It will target the high-per- the Grandpuits industrial site. The “zero- * Green electricity generation: Grand-
formance packaging market, in particular crude” project, which will cost an esti- puits is home to the largest solar farm
for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. mated total of over €500-mn, is based on in the Île-de-France region, equipped
the development of several future-orien- with a battery energy storage system.
“This investment is great news for ted activities in biomass, renewables and Since coming onstream in July 2023,
the local area and represents another the circular economy: it has been generating 31-GWh of
milestone for the zero-crude platform at * SAF production: the biorefinery’s green electricity a year, enough to
Grandpuits. The investment in this plas- output capacity of 210,000 tons a supply 19,000 people. This power
tic recycling unit is entirely consistent year by 2025 and 285,000 tons a year generation required the installation
with the company’s ambition to grow by 2027 will allow the company to of 46,000 solar panels and adds to the
the circular economy and will contribute keep pace with the gradual rise in EU 28-GWh facility built at Gargenville,
to the objective of reaching 1-million blending mandates, set at 6% in 2030. west of Paris, which was launched
tons of circular polymers by 2030,” said * Biomethane production: the bio- in 2022.

NATURAL INGREDIENTS
Sophim secures €20-mn funding round; to invest

in capacity expansion

Sophim, the France-based sustainable sion occupies a central place in Sophim’s
cosmetic ingredients manufacturer, has corporate culture,” added Mr. Julien Jorge,
completed a €20-mn funding round. The manager at Smalt Capital.
total included €4.5-mn from Smalt Capital –
the only financial investor in the round Founded in 1996, Sophim specialises
and a partner of Sophim since 2014 – as in natural and renewable cosmetic ingre-
well as banking support and funding in dients; its flagship product is Phytosqualan,
recovery bonds. an olive-derived squalane that is 100%
from vegetable origin. Developed in the
The company said the capital injection one. “This investment will allow us to company’s R&D laboratory, the produc-
would enable it to double production capa- double our production capacity at our two tion of botanical squalane follows the
city at its two industrial sites in Peyruis industrial sites, to meet strong demand for principles of the circular economy, by
(France) and Almeria (Spain). It is also our products, especially internationally,” recovering olive fatty acids, a raw material
hoping to accelerate international growth said Sophim’s President, Mr. Jacques Mar- that had been poorly recovered and whose
with the aim of levelling-up from a small- gnat. “Beyond purely financial criteria, the local supply is preferred by Sophim to
to-medium-sized company to a mid-cap human, collective and ecological dimen- reduce its carbon footprint.

Chemical Weekly October 3, 2023 169

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