Recovery of industrial by-products

We recycle materials and recover waste from industrial processes. The aim? To preserve resources and our environment, while also maximizing industrial productivity.
Valorisation des sous-produits industriels

Our current industrial production model is unsustainable over the long term. As natural resources become increasingly scarce and the climate crisis more severe, we have to rethink our relationship with resources and design new social and economic growth models that are more efficient, better balanced and more sustainable.

More and more industries are maximizing their productivity and helping to fight the climate crisis by recovering valuable residues from their production waste, such as oily sludge and potassium hydroxide, even CO2.

We extend the lifetime and useful value of extracted resources.

We use a circular approach to support manufacturers at every stage of their manufacturing process: from initial creation of a product all the way to producing new raw materials by processing waste and industrial by-products.

We also generate new resources for our customers in every sector of the economy: heat from an industrial process becomes heating for homes; wastewater becomes fertilizer or energy; biogas from fermenting waste becomes electricity or biofuel, and so on.

For example, oil refineries produce oily residues found in what is known as oily sludge. We can recover these by-products thanks to one of our exclusive technologies. This means we cut costs associated with waste disposal while also returning up to 0.5% additional crude oil to the production process. We have already successfully implemented this solution at 65 refineries around the world.

  • Boosting your yields
     
  • Avoiding costs associated with transporting and eliminating waste
     
  • Reducing your environmental impact

Are you a company in the oil and gas, pharmaceutical or chemical industry? What are the benefits for you?

Valorisation des sous-produits industriels veolia

We did it!

France
Capturing CO2 for use as a raw material

In 2015, we developed a project for capturing CO2 present in flue gases at the SEDIBEX hazardous waste incinerator. The test phase was an outstanding success: we captured several metric tons of CO2 every hour, which was then sent to industrial sites that use carbon dioxide when manufacturing lubricant additives.

Basel

Switzerland

Recovering solvents for the pharmaceutical industry

As part of a contract with pharmaceutical group Novartis, we operate Europe's largest solvent distillation facility, located at a Novartis production site in Basel, Switzerland. Distillation of 21,000 metric tons of solvents, recycled during the production process, is critical to ensuring continuity of production. It is also vital to obtaining approvals from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and European Medicine Agency for the production of drugs.

Find out more: view other solutions for industry