Case Study: Syctom Waste to Energy plant in France

Syctom’s needs: meeting new regulations in the heart of Paris

Syctom, the metropolitan domestic waste agency, is the leading European public operator for the treatment and recovery of household waste from 6 million inhabitants in Paris and its suburbs.

Meeting air control pollution regulations

The flue gases from Syctom plants contain a wide range of pollutants such as HCl, NOx, SOx, HF and heavy metals. As the majority of Waste to Energy plants, Syctom plants are located in metropolitan areas and their emissions are tightly controlled, leading to the need to find a solution to reduce them.

The treatment of process residues

Syctom is committed to ensure an effective limitation of the environmental impacts of its facilities. They choose the dry flue gas treatment with sodium bicarbonate to be aligned with their environmental commitments as much as they could not only by reducing their emissions but also by treating the remaining residues in SOLVAY Resolest® recycling plant.

What SOLVAir® did for Syctom

Installation of a Dry Sorbent Injection (DSI) Process

After selection of the process in 1999, Syctom’s Isséane plant in Issy Les Moulineaux was directly designed with a Dry Sorbent Injection installation and started operating with SOLVAIR BICAR® with high pollutants removal rates in 2007.

Benefits for Syctom

Low acid emissions of HCl, SOx and HF achieved

The plant’s exhaust successfully reached values that are below legal limits for every pollutant : eg for 2018 =

3.19 mg/Nm3, dry, 11% O2 for HCl,

3.51 mg/Nm3 dry, 11% O2 for SOx,

0.021 mg/Nm3, dry, 11% O2 for HF.

Going unseen: no more visible plume

Before starting using SOLVAir® Dry Sorbent Injection Process in 2007, Syctom’s former Issy plant used a wet process, creating a huge and visible  white smoke plume. Although it was only evaporated water, it could bother the city’s residents.

Syctom is building two new plants using Dry Sorbent Injection Process

SOLVAir® Solutions were so efficient at Issy-les-Moulineaux that Syctom decided to use it in 2 others plants close to Paris. The first plant is located in St Ouen and is being converted to SOLVAir® SB0/3, and the second one in Ivry is being re-built to be operational by 2024.

Requirements of the legislation BREF WI and results in 2018