Solvay is a Belgian multinational science company established in 1863, with its headquarters located in Neder-Over-Heembeek, Brussels, Belgium. The company has been active in Bulgaria since 1997 and has the biggest European plant for the production of soda ash in the Bulgarian town of Devnya. Todor Nikolov is Solvay Sodi’s Energy Transition Projects Director.
Mr. Nikolov, Solvay Sodi announced late in 2022 a project for the construction of a steam generation plant fuelled by alternative fuels. Can you tell us a bit more about this project and its current status?
As you know, Solvay Sodi is one of the biggest plants of Solvay for the production of soda ash. The plant covers about 35% of the European capacity of the company for the production of soda ash and bicarbonate. This plant consumes a lot of energy, mainly steam, but electricity as well. In order to decarbonise the entire production process at the plant, Solvay Sodi created a roadmap, which was announced last year. One of the first projects in this roadmap is for the production of energy based on alternative fuels from non-hazardous waste and biomass. This project was announced officially in September 2022. After several months of negotiations and discussions with the relevant authorities, we received the green light to continue with an environmental impact assessment. The project is currently undergoing this procedure, which will take at least 12 months, in the most optimistic scenario. This would be the right time to convince the authorities and the local people that the project makes sense, is not dangerous and will bring a lot of value to the circular economy in Bulgaria, mainly in the area of waste management and also in the area of generation of energy based on low-carbon solutions.
What would be the broader social effects of this project for the local community and the municipality of Devnya?
This project is very complex and will have a huge impact - not only for Devnya, not only for the region, but for a very big part of Bulgaria. The main idea is to use alternative fuels which are produced from the waste of one-third of Bulgaria. The project will surely create a lot of new jobs, we assume that the average workforce will be about 200-250 people during the four years of construction and afterwards between 20 to 30 new positions should be created on site due to the logistics specifics. The supply chain related to the use of biomass will create additional jobs in the Eastern Region of Bulgaria. So, the number of new jobs created will ultimately depend on the technology and the development of the production of alternative fuels in different municipalities. This is the first social impact. The second one concerns the circular economy. Through this project Solvay Sodi will also shed light on the best practices in the management of non-hazardous industrial waste from commercial facilities such as shopping malls and some logistics sites. Our first analysis shows an expectation of over 1000-1200 people involved in waste management and production of alternative fuels-related activities, including the logistics needed, in order to cover the project demands. Group-wise, Solvay has the goal of phasing-out coal and fossil fuels by 2030.
What would be the contribution of this project to that goal and the overall group strategy?
The project has a capacity of about 220 MW of thermal input. The most recent calculations show that this would reduce the CO2 emission of the plant at a rate of 300 kilotons per year, which is huge. At a national level, this equals to about 0.8% of the total emissions in Bulgaria. This ensures our competitiveness and will give us leeway to find a solution for the other 400-450 kilotons of CO2 emission generated per year through to 2027.
In the previous edition of our report, we talked about Solvay Sodi's plan to adapt one of the existing boilers for production of soda ash to increase the combined combustion of biomass. Has this project been completed yet and what are its net effects?
The project is already operational and it was very important because it was really the first concrete step in our roadmap towards the 2030 and 2050 goals and proved to us that we can really have a positive impact on the decarbonisation of the site in Devnya and save CO2 emissions. This project has saved more than 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions so far.
What is your opinion about Bulgaria’s efforts towards decarbonisation?
One thing that is highly important is to start a discussion on the decarbonisation of not only the power capacities but also of the steam and heat needs of industrial sites. A lot of industrial companies are pushed against the wall right now as there is no support mechanism at national level, such as in Poland, the Czech Republic and even Romania. I hope we will be able to start the discussion on this topic with politicians and the society in the near future. The decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries shall be a priority for Bulgaria, as it is in other EU countries, facilitated by constructive dialogue and support from the government and the national administration.