Solvay Chemicals, Inc. Commissions Landmark Mine Methane Recovery Facility

With its Chairman of the Board, Nicolas Böel, and US Representative (R-Wyoming) Cynthia Lummis on hand, Solvay Chemicals commissioned North America’s first trona mine methane recovery facility. The Methane Recovery System (MaRS) captures methane liberated during the mining process that would otherwise be vented directly into the atmosphere and instead directs it to either be incinerated, or piped to the trona processing facility to recover the thermal energy via combustion. MaRS is a patent pending, closed-loop design. Since its initial testing last year, the project has already removed more than 160,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) from the atmosphere.

“By safely removing, incinerating and/or beneficially using the waste gas from our mining operations,” Böel commented, “this facility puts into practice the values of our founder, Ernest Solvay, who believed deeply that science and technology are the keys to advancing mankind’s condition and meeting the global challenges our society faces.”

Starting in 2009, Solvay has invested nearly $4 million into designing, constructing and testing the facility and has worked in close cooperation and consultation with the federal and state offices of the Bureau of Land Management and Environmental Protection Agency to implement the technology. It has the ultimate capacity to remove 300,000 tons of CO₂e annually. Solvay has registered its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction and carbon offset credits through the Climate Action Reserve, which independently verifies and issues the facility’s offsets.

“The Solvay Group has done a tremendous service for the trona industry in Wyoming,” Representative Lummis commented. “This kind of innovation is crucial for the advancement and durability of trona mining as well as the communities and environment surrounding their operations.”

About the Solvay Group

Solvay is an international chemical Group committed to sustainable development with a clear focus on innovation and operational excellence. It generates over 90 percent of its sales in markets where it is among the top three leaders. Solvay offers a broad range of products that contribute to improving the quality of life and the performance of its customers in markets such as consumer goods, construction, automotive, energy, water and environment, and electronics. The Group is headquartered in Brussels. Its companies employ about 29,000 people in 55 countries and generated EUR 12.7 billion in net sales in 2011. Solvay SA (SOLB.BE) is listed on NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris (Bloomberg: SOLB.BB - Reuters: SOLBt.BR).