Solutions to pollution
15 Jan 2000
'Where would you rather be,' asks Antoine de Caunes in that celebrated Eurostar ad, 'Paris or the motorway?' At the recent Pollutec exhibition, just north of the French capital, I would have had to plump for the tarmac.
On 30 September, the first day of the show, Paris was put on Level 3 of its pollution alert. Nitrogen dioxide levels were at their highest for two years and ozone exceeded the critical 360 g/m3 level. The following day, the Mayor was forced to implement the city's procedures to restrict traffic, lower speed limits and waive all fares on public transport.
Quite a coincidence, then, that the majority of France's counter-pollution companies were gathered at the biggest ever Pollutec show, parading their systems and solutions to the 37 000 visitors (up seven per cent on 1995's event).
Alain Ducass, director of France's Agency for Environment and Energy Management (Ademe) made a key address entitled Environment in France.He detailed the state's burgeoning annual spend on different aspects of the environment. In 1994, it totalled Ecu17bn (£12bn), compared with Germany's Ecu32bn (£22bn) and the UK's Ecu11bn (£8bn). French industry will be receiving subsidies of FFR6bn (£650m) from the water agencies in particular, over the next five years to assist with environmental improvements. 'In future, to adhere to the new regulations contained in EU directives, smaller companies will have to make at least a minimum investment themselves,' he said. 'If industry does not invest to reduce pollution, it will have to pay more and more levies. There will be the stick and there will be the carrot.'
Paris 'shocked'
He highlighted the pollution alert in the city which, although not directly attributable to one particular industry, was symptomatic of persistent environmental problems. 'This will be a big shock for the people of Paris,' he said.
Ademe was presenting its own exhibition, co-located with Pollutec, entitled Energy Saving and Renewable Sources of Energy. Together, the two shows involved nearly 1400 exhibitors from 30 countries, on more than 1000 stands.
One of the more notable exhibitors at the exhibition was Groupe Seche, France's largest private industrial waste processor and environmental engineering company. Apart from highlighting its services and its 200ha landfill site in western France, the company was tempting in visitors with a free walking stick. By the second day of the show, every other person in the three halls appeared to have been 'Secheed'. You would end up with either a stick or an invitation to their wild Carribean party on the Champs Elysees or both, if you were really lucky.
France's flamboyant environment minister Dominique Voynet did not escape a 'sticking' on her tour of the stands (see below). She also appeared on one of the numerous discussion programmes that took place live on 'Pollutec TV', which was broadcasting throughout the four-day show.
A novel environmental resource for Francophone Internet surfers was presented by ADME, the Association for the Development of Multimedia tools for the Environment. Michel Giran has written a CD-ROM entitled 'La Planete a Besoin de Nous' (The Planet Needs Us). It features contact details for and information about environmental resources useful to industry. Details are at http://www.adme.asso.fr
The three halls of the exhibition cover different types of environmental products and solutions; water and air in one and two, and national pavilions from abroad and diverse technologies in the third. This year, foreign stands accounted for 17 per cent of all exhibitors.
For example, the German pavilion featured Eisenmann, developer of a new regenerative thermal oxidiser (RTO), one of which was recently installed at Du Pont in Leeds.
The company's Birgit Fischer told PE about the need for this end-of-pipe solution, which represents a substantial investment. 'Pending European VOC guidelines are influencing customers' demands towards our type of system,' she said. 'Though still in negotiation at Brussels, the legislation is more likely to hit small companies that produce excess VOCs, because the EU wants to reduce their acceptable levels.'
Pollutec 97 also marked the founding of a European headquarters, in Marseille, by CAE Europe, a subsidiary of US-based Clean Air Engineering. Primarily a rental company for emissions testing equipment, CAE has decided that there is enough demand for its services to justify a permanent Euro-base.
As with previous Pollutec exhibitions, Ademe and Industries et Techniques presented prizes to companies that had developed environmental innovations.
In the SME category, winners were Menuiseries Collin (replacement of organic solvents by water-based products in wood treatment) and Morin Technolames (a novel floating wood flooring process). Large company winners were Rhone Poulenc (aromatic hydrocarbon acylation), La Rochette Venizel (transforming 'black' solutions into additives) and Compagnie Thermique du Gol (developments to a coal-fired power station to counter the 'greenhouse effect').
Academic winners were J Jaspers and M Pennickk of University of Brussels (decoloration of industrial effluents), J-P Borra and P Ehouarn of CNRS' Gas and Plasmas Laboratory (electrical discharges and the environment) and E Dejean, of CNRS Montpelier (new filter fabrics to purify water).
