The French government has announced that it will invest €420 million in public funds to develop industrial biotechnologies and bio-materials manufacture. Some of this money will be used to convert a coal power plant in North-East into a hub for low-carbon, bio-based chemical industries. This forms part of an energy strategy aimed at decarbonising transport and industry.
The announcement came during Friday’s visit by industry minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher to the last remaining coal plant operating in France. The Émile-Huchet coal power plant located in Saint-Avold, North-East France, is scheduled to close in March 2022 under the November 2019 energy and climate law.
The Émile-Huchet site will be a key target for the decarbonisation programme. €12.7 million has been set aside for a new biomass energy plant to replace the coal plant. The biomass plant will produce energy using natural wood waste from the forestry and sugar industry. Pannier-Runacher called it ‘a symbol of future industry’.
The transition from carbon to biomass-based energy production is being managed by Gazelnergie, the current plant operator. The biomass plant project is expected to employ seventy people in total. The revamped site is set to reduce carbon emissions by 56, 000 tonnes per year at the end of the decade.
The site will also become home to bio-based chemical manufactures. Two companies, Afyren and MetEx, have already established themselves there. Afyren is a sustainable chemicals company founded in 2012. It makes bio-sourced alternatives to petroleum-based chemicals with a range that includes seven bio-sourced organic acids and one fertiliser. MetEx uses also uses organic waste raw materials to produce chemical compounds. Their products include animal nutrition additives, plastics, textiles, cosmetics, and resins. Both companies produce their compounds using bacterial fermentation.
The French industry minister has said that ‘bio-based chemicals and green chemical [have] an enormous potential’. Currently, organic chemicals represent only around 5 % of the French chemical industry, bringing in approximately €1 million.
