SUSTAINABLE GROWTH | Our approach to sustainability
Speeding up innovation
Research & Development is essential in our differentiation and growth strategy as well as in developing our knowledge of key market players. Thanks to innovation, we provide customers with sustainable products and solutions that meet their expectations and contribute to present and future growth.
INNOVATION AND THE RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF ITS KEY SKILLS
Promote scientific debate about animal feed
Adisseo is behind the “Feedchannel.online” digital information initiative which connects scientists and experts from all over the world with players in the animal feed market.
Thanks to yearly “Advancia Academy” seminars, interactive webinars, discussions and interviews, it helps address issues which are at the core of animal protein producers’ concerns, and understand the challenges facing animal health and nutrition.
A wide variety of topics were covered in 2018, including:
quality eggs for longer.
frontier to guarantee
performance.
for healthier piglets.
Via this media platform, Adisseo aims to foster exchanges between scientists and technicians the world over, and to make progress with regards to an ever-growing concern for our customers: developing sustainable production of animal protein while safeguarding animal wellbeing.
MEET US ONLINE AT: http://www.feedchannel.online/
Adisseo wins the Innov’Space 2018 award
In 2018, Adisseo was rewarded for its Alterion Ne® probiotic at the Innov’Space International Exhibition for Animal Production in Rennes, France.
Developed in association with Novozymes, this product, specifically designed for poultry, is composed of an innovative formulation that promotes intestinal microbial balance, while guaranteeing optimal food digestion. Hence, it helps farmers optimise feed consumption, have a good alternative to antibiotics and reduce related rejections.
Commentry inaugurates a new corporate village
In May 2018, the Commentry site inaugurated a “Corporate Village”. This collaborative space gathers together six partner companies – AB Maintenance, Actemium, Cimat Sartec, Kaefer Vanner, Suez Savac, SNEC – for whom some one hundred employees work every day.
At the initiative of the project, Adisseo offered member companies the opportunity to invest jointly with them to modernise and improve work and safety conditions in the organisation. Adisseo invested more than EUR 400,000 in order to modernise facilities, including refurbishing roadways, renovating lavatories, and creating a recycling center with selective sorting.
This investment will help us bring in further business as well as develop the attractiveness of Commentry’s industrial platform.
Adisseo in search of bio-based resources
Faced with a growing shortage of fossil resources, Adisseo is focusing its research on more environmentally-friendly raw materials of plant origin. In order to carry through this objective, the company is involved in two projects.
The first one has been developed in partnership with French start-up ALDERYS, which aims to obtain L-methionine through a sugar-based fermentation process.
The second one, named ECOMET-Bio, supported in the context of ADEME’s Investments for the Future Programme (PIA) is carried out in partnership with INSA in Toulouse and our laboratories. This is a combined process with glucose fermentation followed by a final chemical stage to produce the liquid form of methionine: L-hydroxymethionine. This project underwent a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate its environmental impact, which is significantly lower than that of known amino acid production fermentation processes (Lysine, Threonine). At the current stage of development, it is already equivalent to the best chemical synthesis processes available.
The introduction of a demonstrator is scheduled for 2022.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: watch our video
More efficient raw material
The Commentry plant uses a new type of activated carbon that offers better performances at the recrystallisation/decolouration stage of Methionine powder.
The result of close collaboration between the R&D and Sales departments and the Methionine Business Unit, this new process helps optimise the lifespan of activated carbon columns while improving the quality of the finished product and decreasing by one third the quantity of waste generated.
tons
decrease
of spent carbon waste
over a first test period in 2018
Speeding up innovation with Innov’l@b
Always on the lookout for future disruptive solutions, Adisseo has created Innov’l@b: a team dedicated to research and the selection of Proofs of Concept (POCs) on the feed and feed-related market – food, pharmaceuticals, big data and artificial intelligence. The aim is to extend our network of partners in these fields of activity to develop present and future solutions.
The products and services selected by Innov’l@b aim to improve our customers’ operational efficiency and reduce our environmental impact, with due regard for animal wellbeing and the end user.
Thanks to the development of new technologies, livestock farming is changing. To accommodate these changes, Adisseo is already working on smart farm projects (“smart farming”) in association with one of its major clients. Thanks to a network of 400 member farms, Adisseo is developing a digital system to identify correlations between multiple parameters and working on predictive algorithms which will help farmers improve their performance and de-medicalise their livestock.
At this time, 234 projects have been selected by Innov’l@b, including 35 which are being evaluated.
selected projects
within Innov’l@b
2018: significant environmental investments
Our Hygiene, Safety & Environment (HSE)-related expenses have to account for ever-growing regulatory constraints (additional studies, tax increases, etc.). Adisseo has dealt with this with a deliberate HSE-related investment policy of close to EUR 27 million per year over the last few years.
In an effort to promote sustainable growth, each industrial project is used to strengthen our control of safety and environmental risks and reduce their impact.
In 2018, the environmental share of investments increased significantly due to several major projects. A new electrostatic filter was installed on the Nanjing site (China) to remove dust from smoke and the first steps were taken for the construction of a new water treatment plant in Commentry (Allier, France) and a new effluent treatment furnace on a methionine intermediate production unit in Saint Clair du Rhône (Isère, France).
Construction of a second plant in China: BANC II
Adisseo has begun the construction of a 2nd plant in China (BANC II). The EUR 435 million investment for the construction of this new unit will help increase our AT 88 liquid methionine production capacity by 180 kilotons per year. The platform will be built close to Nanjing’s existing plant in order to maximise synergies and the experience of the local team in our first plant. This new production unit will be operational in 2021 to meet customer demand and our objectives for sustainable growth.
Future installations will feature the latest improvements in terms of environmental impact reduction, including a steam turbine which will produce 40% of electricity on site.
According to Jean-Marc Dublanc, CEO of Adisseo, “The positive decision that was made for this major project shows the trust which management and board members at BLUESTAR and CHEMCHINA have shown in our ability to be competitive on the methionine market as well as the capacity of Adisseo’s team to draw maximum value from such an investment. This is a key step in strengthening our leadership in the methionine industry.”
A new, secured MSH unloading station
In the context of the industrial project POLAR, intended to increase our AT 88 methionine production capacity, a new MSH Méthyl Mercaptan enloading station and a railway have been built on the Roches-Roussillon site.
These upgraded installations ensure compliance for the former unloading station and increase our storage capacity.
Adisseo applied the best available techniques with a sheltered station to help prevent any leakage, and acquired new dedicated railcars equipped with the most modern safety devices.
Upon completion, the installation was transferred to the Supply Chain Department, responsible for running the new facility.
DID YOU KNOW?
CONSUMPTION INDEX
Animals’ capacity to convert feed into live weight relies heavily on species and livestock management.
Source : IOP (Institut of Physics) publishing December 2017
of food to produce
1 kg of beef
of food to produce
1 kg of pork
of food to produce
1 kg of chicken
of food to produce
1 kg of fish
Invest in animal health, nutrition and feed
Adisseo is committed to a strategic investment approach in new disruptive technologies in order to expand its R&D innovation portfolio.
It is for this reason that Adisseo, with a first closing of EUR 24 million is a partner in the venture fund AVF, launched by Seventure Partners, which is dedicated to animal health, feed and nutrition.
“This new thematic fund has been created in order to meet a very specific, growing need in the market: preserving animal health, understanding better the whole food value chain as well as the development of technologies to cultivate and produce food in a better way”, said Isabelle De Cremoux, CEO of Seventure Partners.
“Our ambition is to become one of the leaders in Feed Ingredient Specialities and the partner of reference for our clients in animal feed, while respecting a sustainable growth model”, added Jean-Marc Dublanc, CEO of Adisseo. “Hence, we have naturally decided to team up with Seventure and enter into the AVF fund as strategic investors.”
Adisseo attends the World Exhibition Congress on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology in Frankfurt
Adisseo’s industrial platform in Commentry hosts three companies for which it provides a large number of services (safety, inspection, analyses, etc.) and utilities (steam, water, gas, electricity, industrial fluids).
In order to enhance and promote this specificity, Adisseo Commentry was present at ACHEMA, the largest international exhibition dedicated to the chemical processing industry, with more than 3800 exhibitors and 166,000 visitors: a major display window for anyone wishing to showcase their products, solutions and innovations.
The platform in Commentry, on show in the French pavilion, featured among fifteen chemical industrial platforms from France.
Rallying for Sustainable Development
Every year, Adisseo calls upon all of its branches around the world to take part in Sustainable Development Week. The aim is to raise employee awareness to the significance of the company’s actions in this field and to collect any proposals for new initiatives.
A few examples of actions carried out during the European Sustainable Development Week from 27 May to 3 June 2018:
Burgos Plant: “Kilometres for Sustainable Development” activity, every kilometre covered with a static bike was transformed into a financial donation for an association selected by the employees.
euros collected
in Burgos by 111 workers over 354 kilometres pedaled
Cinabio Laboratory: organisation of a pick-nick with locally-produced foods and an awareness-raising presentation on the utility of Life-Cycle Assessments (LCA) in R&D.
Roches-Roussillon Plant: installation of book-sharing boxes for staff members to help make reading more accessible and give books a second life.
Antony: three breakfasts focusing on the topics “innovation and sustainable development”, “the contribution of the specialities business unit” and “animal feed, from productivity to sustainable development”.
Sao Paolo: replacement of fluorescent light bulbs with LED lights, creation of an area to collect “Sustainable Action” donations to support various local associations and hospitals.
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