Engineers are the beating heart of Solvay. They deliver value across the manufacturing chain and constantly improve our production processes. They strive to match or even exceed our customers’ expectations while constantly raising the bar of well-being and sustainability.
As you join one of our industrial engineering teams across the globe, you’ll get to design, build and start up new production units or enhance existing ones. You could also ensure the safety of our workplaces and processes, or even set out to keep decreasing our pressure on the environment over the years to come. It’s all up to you and your industrial engineering expertise!
Skills
Academic background in engineering
Experience in industry
Strong sense of initiative
Great interpersonal skills
Choose your path
Picture yourself in the field
Solvay’s industrial engineering teams get to work on many exciting projects, from the reshaping of existing facilities to use exclusively renewable energy to the prevention of accidents on site. Read on to find out about some of the most important projects your future colleagues have been working on.
“We save CO2 and phase out coal faster than anyone else”
Initiated in 2017, the Woodpower project in Rheinberg, Germany aims to replace thermal coal as a source of energy with a range of biomass boilers. As a young engineer working on the site, Christoph got to witness and even directly participate in this transition.
“I have been involved since the very beginning of the project, running different efficiency calculations on fuel cost and electricity benefits,” he explains. “I was subsequently in charge of the technical project management for Woodpower’s two back pressure steam turbines, I helped set up these turbines and connect them to the existing network, and I was the interface between project managers and operators.”
The Woodpower project is a very important step on Solvay’s path to coal phasing-out. “This project also makes me very proud to work at Solvay: We’ve made soda ash greener while increasing the Group’s competitiveness. As far as my career is concerned, I was entrusted with important responsibilities, I became better at managing projects and I had the chance to work with international teams. This was a great experience,” says Christoph.
“I try to optimize water usage in my everyday life”
Reducing freshwater consumption is one of Solvay’s sustainability goals. In Tavaux, France, this objective is being realized thanks to a project to optimize the site’s cooling towers. “We’re consuming 15 million m3 of freshwater every year. To reduce this intake, we have been working with an external company to operate our cooling towers at a higher salt concentration,” explains Romain, Production Engineer in charge of the project.
With this work, Romain and his team expect to reduce freshwater consumption by 50%. “Sustainability projects are never easy as they require a change in mindset, and we have to take into account corrosion as well as the risk of increasing the quantity of unwanted residues in our equipment. But our micro-pilot phase tests have enabled us to validate the approach,” says Romain.
So what did he learn from the project? “Perseverance,” Romain argues. “In addition to the reduction of water consumption, we are also reducing variable costs, so it’s an economical and environmental win-win.”