Grand Opening: $26 million invested in the Speichim site in Saint-Vulbas (01)
The health crisis has raised awareness of the need to bring industrial production chains back to France, particularly in the pharmaceutical sector. To address this challenge, Séché Environnement, a key partner to manufacturers in their low-carbon transition through the production of recycled resources, has invested €26 million to develop the main site of its subsidiary Speichim Processing in Saint-Vulbas (Ain).
Supported by the government through the France Relance and Investissements d’Avenir programs, these investments have enabled the expansion of production and innovation capabilities in the purification and regeneration of chemical materials.
Supporting the industry’s green transition and the relocation of strategic operations
Séché Environnement, through its subsidiaries Speichim Processing in France and Valls Quimica in Spain, is one of the leading international specialists in the recycling and purification of complex mixtures through distillation. With expertise unique in Europe, the Group works for cutting-edge industries such as pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, cosmetics, agrochemicals, automotive, and aerospace, by regenerating solvents or purifying the complex mixtures used by these industries.
The relocation of strategic activities, particularly within the pharmaceutical industry, calls for the development of production capacities among service providers capable of supplying and distilling essential chemicals for their production processes in Europe.
In the face of dwindling resources, the recovery of used solvents into products that can be directly reused by manufacturers is part of a circular economy approach aimed at reducing environmental impact. The use of a regenerated solvent results in an average 80% reduction in CO2 emissions compared to a virgin solvent.
The products regenerated in this way will replace supplies—mostly from outside Europe—that consume large amounts of natural resources.
Recipient of funding under the France Relance and Investissements d’Avenir programs
The development project for the Speichim Processing Saint-Vulbas site was among the winners of the second phase of the “Relocalization” call for projects under the France Relance plan.
With government support, the investments have made it possible to:
- Significantly strengthen production capacity for critical inputs through the eventual installation of four new state-of-the-art distillation columns (two of which have already been installed), doubling the site’s authorized processing capacity (from 20,000 to 40,000 tons per year).
- The construction of a new R&D laboratory aimed at developing new processes for the purification and recovery of complex chemical materials, processes that can be deployed across all Speichim sites.
- To develop and build an industrial demonstrator implementing an innovative chemical process that aims to make industrial production residues recoverable by transforming them into high-value-added molecules used in the pharmaceutical industry and specialty chemicals.
Construction of the new facilities took place between 2021 and 2024. These investments will create 20 jobs across various roles (R&D engineers, production operators, laboratory and maintenance technicians, etc.) at the Saint-Vulbas site.
“The teams at Séché Environnement are constantly innovating to stay at the forefront of industrial and environmental challenges. These efforts are now helping to facilitate the return and development within our region of industrial players essential to our sovereignty. With this significant investment, we are committed to supporting our customers in their transition to a low-carbon circular economy,” says Maxime Séché, CEO of Séché Environnement.