Former Solvay’s Mulhouse site, in France, operated under a number of different companies for over 130 years, producing chemicals used in the wool and cotton industries. The site was closed in 2007, but when Solvay inherited it in 2011 chemicals from past operations were found in the soil, which were affecting underground water sources.
To clean up the plant and restore the water quality, our first step was to implement hydraulic confinement, capturing all of the polluted water leaving the site in order to preserve the quality of the Mulhouse city drinking wells located further downstream. The pollutants were then removed from the water using an innovative technology known as thermal desorption, which involves heating the soil and collecting the chemical vapors. As a result of the project, the city of Mulhouse now enjoys much higher quality drinking water.
- 12,500m² of soil treated and 99% of residual pollutants removed
Reducing our pressure on biodiversity by 30% by 2030