solvay_live243_p02a04 somEdito

SOLVAY ive
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
What do you see
that we don’t?
SPECIAL
Innovation
Trophy 2006
edition
THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE SOLVAYGROUP | NO249 | JULY 2006

ContentsNo249
2
Dossier
Innovation
is everyone’s business
SPECIAL
Innovation
Trophy 2006
edition
4 Editorial
5 Reference Points
> Innovation
Scorecard
6 Group Panorama
10 Group Strategy
> Innovation moving ahead.
Solvay live interviews Jacques
van Rijckevorsel
Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General
Manager of the Plastics Sector
and Group Innovation Sponsor.
The Solvay S.A. International Magazine – 70 th year – July 2006 – Published by Solvay S.A. – Communication Competence Centre – Rue du Prince Albert 33, B-1050 Brussels –
Tel.: +32.2.509.64.48 – Fax: +32.2.509.72.40 – Communication.internal@solvay.com – Distribution: 20 000 copies – Managing editor: Claude Michel – Coordinator and
editor-in-chief: Sara Curvelo – Editorial secretariat: Nathalie Feys and Frédéric Bouchat – Writing and translation: Guy Amoris, Izicom, Michael Lomax, Production – Printing:
Deckers Druk NV – Photos: DR, Photographer’s Martin Barraud/Getty Images (cover), Pol Guillard, Hubert Mouillade, Jens Bacheberle. Iconothèque Solvay – Design and
production: – Editorial Manager: Anne Brunet – Publication manager: Laurent Rousselle – Reproduction is subject to prior authorization and must carry the
reference “Solvay live”. Solvay group magazines may reproduce the content without restriction. Legally registered with the Belgian national library. Affiliated to the
Association Royale de la Presse Belge d’Entreprise (ABPE-BVB) Version française sur demande www.solvay.com

13 Dossier
> Innovation
is everyone’s business
19 > CATEGORY 1
New business
29 > CATEGORY 2
Customer oriented projects
41 > CATEGORY 3
Performance
improvement
51 > CATEGORY 4
Management
improvement
59 > CATEGORY 5
Sustainable development
and citizenship
69 > CATEGORY 6
Replicated innovations
BE OUR GUEST
FOR THE
INNOVATION
DAYS.TAKE PART
IN OUR
QUIZ
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 3

Editorial
4
WHEN ARCHIMEDES LEAPT OUT OF HIS BATH SHOUTING
“EUREKA” (I’VE FOUND IT), EVERYONE LAUGHED. BUT
BEHIND THIS 2 300 YEAR-OLD ANECDOTE LIES A
REMARKABLE SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURE: ARCHIMEDES
HAD JUST DISCOVERED A NATURAL PHENOMENON
WHICH WOULD LEAD HIM TO FORMULATE THE
PRINCIPLES OF HYDROSTATICS.
NOT THAT THERE WAS ANYTHING PARTICULARLY
DIFFICULT INVOLVED… NO MORE THAN OBSERVING,
ANALYSING, LOOKING FOR CONCEPTS, FORMULATING A
HYPOTHESIS AND VERIFYING IT.
For 140 years we have been doing just that at Solvay.
Even so, a new impetus was needed and was given a
few years ago. Since then, the remarkable Solvay
machine has moved into gear, and results are coming
in fast – with our teams rising, as was to be expected,
to the challenge. Wherever I go, I am impressed by
the enthusiasm of our employees who are coming up
AN INNOVATION
DRIVEN GROUP
CHRISTIAN JOURQUIN, CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE
with new ideas in every field, with no holes barred:
new products, new technologies, new sales techniques,
new management approaches. The result is a
rejuvenated Solvay which is going places.
This emulation, which should lead us to move ahead
together, is an example of a salutary step forward of
which we would like to see many more, in particular in
Europe with its declining industrial fabric. It is innovation
that will continue to create jobs and wealth, and enable
us to pass down a richer heritage to future generations.
It is also a message of hope that we send out to our
younger members. The future becomes less threatening
if you are able to constantly seize the opportunities of
progress, if you have the courage to “dare the future”.
We shall soon be entering the decisive stages of the
fourth Innovation Trophy. We can already talk of a
tradition – well done everyone for your keenness and
determination. I am as impatient as you are to know
the winners – But will there be losers? Certainly not.
It is in competing that we find the pleasure and – as I
ardently wish – the recognition and gratitude of our
fellow-employees.
Thank you for everything you are doing. Let’s share
together this Passion for Progress ® and once again,
let’s dare the future.

2003
0,57
Innovation Scorecard
97% 97% 97%
ReferencePoints
2004 2004 2004
2004 2004 2004
2004 2004 2004
Green lights 76% 76% 76% all along 0,56 0,56 0,56 the 16,2% line 16,2%
DEVELOPMENT OF THE THREE CHALLENGES BETWEEN 2003 AND 2005
NEW PRODUCTS
1 /5
1/5 of our revenue should come from
products, markets and applications
developed over the past five years.
2003
16,5%
Between 2003 and 2006, the number
of projects collected has risen
remarkably.
Quantity and Quality: of the
312 projects collected, involving
1 381 employees, after hotly-disputed
elimination rounds, just 96 (after
a second pre-selection round)
are competing in the six categories
objective
objective
of for the 2006 2006 Trophy. 2003 2004 2005
65% 65% 65% 0,57 0,57 0,57
2005 2005 2005
0,69 0,69 0,69
2005 2005 2005
20,1% 20,1% 20,1%
PARTNERSHIP
1 /2
One innovative project in two should be
generated in close collaboration with
external partners, such as customers,
universities, public authorities…
2003
2005
2003
65%
objective objective
0,69 0,57 objective
2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2005 2004 2005 2005for
2005 2006 for 2006 for 2006
COMMITMENT
16,5% 16,5% 16,5%
16,2%
1 /1
97% 97% 97%
Every Group entity should be involved
in at least one officially recognized
innovative project.
46.5
% 16.5 16.5 16.2 % % 16.2 % 16.2 18.5 % % 18.5 2004 18.5 % 20% % 20% 20% 2004 49% 49% 51% 49% 51% 51% 46% 200446%
46% 50% 50% 50% 65% 65% 65% 76% 76% 76% 97% 97% 100% 97% 100% 100%
6
16,2%
2004
2004
0,56Upward
progression at 16,2% Group level, despite
application of a stricter definition in 2005.
2005
objective
for 2006
PERCENTAGE OF SALES
GENERATED BY NEW PRODUCTS
20,1%
2003
2004
2005 2005 2005
2003
2005
2003
2005
0,57 20,1%
objective 16,5% objective objective 97%
2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2004 2005
2005 for 2005 2006 for 2006 for 2006 2005
2005
97%
2006,
AN EXCELLENT HARVEST!
objective
for 2006
for 2006
46% 50% 65%
50% 65%
76% 100%
76%
97%
97% 100%
2003 2003 2003
PERCENTAGE OF INNOVATIVE
PROJECTS BEING UNDERTAKEN
IN PARTNERSHIP
2003
65%
2003
0,57
76%
0,56
2004
2004
76% This indicator is necessarily 0,56a
fluctuating one,
oscillating between 46% and 51%.
350
350
300
300
250
250
200 200
150 150
100 100
50 50
0
0
0,69
250 +
250 +
134 134
26 26
20 20
27 27
25 25
19
19
16
16
2003 2003 2003
312
312
2003
2003
2006
96
18
20
20
12
12
16
16
10
10
PERCENTAGE
OF ENTITIES
INVOLVED
2003 2003 2003
THE SIX CATEGORIES
New
New
business
business
Customer Customer oriented oriented projects projects
Performance improvement
Management improvement
Sustainable development and and citizenship
Replicated innovations
2005 2005 2005
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 5
2003
20
65% 6
2004 2004 20
76% 76% 7
objective objective objective
2003 2003 2003 2004 2004 2004 2005 2005 for 2005 2006 for 2006 for 2006
Whilst the definition of “entity” can vary,
commitment is clearly on an uptrend.
3
3
2
2
1
1

GroupPanorama
6
At the cutting edge
of renewable energies
Backed by its experience in
electrodialysis membranes, Solvay
has ventured into the promising
market of fuel cells (*) , a major
technology in the field of
renewable energy.
Listening to the market and
identifying promising technologies
in which Solvay is able to play
a major role have led the Group,
and in particular its New Business
Development (NBD) division, to develop
a new “Renewable Energy” research
platform.
Recent activities and partnerships give
concrete expression to this commitment.
Since October 2004, Solvay has been
a shareholder in Conduit Ventures
Limited (CVL), a London venture
capital fund focused on fuel cells
and hydrogen technologies. Fuel cells
are seen as a sustainable and clean
source of energy for a whole range
of applications, including portable
electronic equipment, fixed energy
sources for buildings, and electrical
vehicles. Participating in CVL, which
has already funded seven start-ups
in the fuel cells field, brings us into
direct contact with the market and
enables us to adapt our research
programmes to developing trends.
On March 8, 2006, Umicore and Solvay
concluded an agreement in principle
to combine forces to research,
develop, produce and sell Membrane-
Electrode Assemblies (MEAs: the
reactor in which hydrogen reacts with
oxygen to produce electricity) and
related materials, for fuel cell
applications. This cooperation brings
together two complementary fields
of competence: Umicore’s catalyst
expertise and Solvay’s knowledge
of fluorinated polymers and
membranes. The 50-50 joint venture,
named SolviCore, is based in Hanau,
east of Frankfurt, at Umicore’s main
German R&D site. This joint venture
has been operational since July, and
employs some 30 persons in its first
Solvay is committed to contributing
to developing realistic
and environmental-friendly
alternatives to fossil fuels.
© Masterfile.
development phase. The R&D,
promotion and sale of Solvay
membranes to SolviCore are piloted
by Solvay Solexis, with our own NBD
division concentrating more on new
fuel cell technologies. Around
30 researchers at Bollate, Italy (Solvay
Solexis) and at NOH, Belgium (Solvay
R&T) are hard at work in this
promising field!
Let’s talk of outlets …. Initially, the
experimental MEAs will be developed
for industrial vehicles (fork lift trucks),
but also for small stationary industrial
units (electrogenerating sets,
residential combined electricity/heat
production…) and all this by 2010.
In April 2006, CMR Fuel Cells plc
and Solvay began working together
to develop a new concept for easily
miniaturizable fuel cells for electronic
equipment. This revolutionary type
of cell calls for a highly permeable
AME structure and very specific
electrode catalysts. This concept can
improve performance five to 10-fold
and is 80% less expensive than
conventional fuel cells.
Our cooperation with CMR Fuel Cells,
one of the companies in which CVL
has a shareholding, is in the form of a
scientific partnership: Solvay
is bringing in its skills in chemistry
and polymer implementation
(membrane constituents) and CMR
its patented mixed fuel cell
technology, giving us excellent
advantages.
(*) Fuel cells combine oxygen and hydrogen
to convert chemical energy into electricity.
The effective combination of these two elements
requires the use of ion-permeable membranes,
which Solvay is currently developing.
In particular, Solvay Solexis has developed
high performance fluorinated ion
exchange membranes.

Omega joins Solvay as a principal project sponsor.
A technology dream
named Solar Impulse
e talk a lot of renewable energies, but not enough about the technology
“W to make them possible and to promote sustainable development”,
is the constantly repeated dictum of Bertrand Piccard, the Swiss “scientistadventurer”
at the origin of the Solar Impulse project.
Developing such technology is precisely the challenge that has to be met to
circumnavigate the world in five stages in a manned aircraft propelled solely by solar
energy. Solvay was the first main partner to commit to the project, following
Bertrand Piccard’s well-received participation in the 3rd Innovation Trophy
in December 2003. Since then Solvay has been financially supporting the project
and providing technological support on a voluntary basis for developing
and characterizing the advanced polymers and fluorinated materials needed
by the aircraft and simulating their behaviour in extreme conditions.
The arrival of a second partner, Swiss watchmaker Omega, in early 2006 has
consolidated this daring challenge with funding to take the project into the
construction stage. Construction of a prototype solar aircraft will begin in 2007,
with the first test flights scheduled in 2008. These will serve to verify the
performance of the technological options taken for the aircraft structure and
for the solar energy management, by carrying out 36-hour flights, including night
periods. In 2010 (or 2011 at the latest), Solar Impulse will undertake its
round-the-world flight in five stages.
© SOLAR IMPULSE / EPFL - Artist Claudio Leonardi.
From canals
to the sea!
N ovosol® , an innovative
environmental technology
that Solvay has developed, has been
selected by the Conseil Général
of the French département of Var
as a promising means for treating
contaminated port and canal
dredging sludge. This département
manages 54 ports, including that
of Toulon. Specialist laboratories will
be carrying out a complete
evaluation of Novosol ® under
the control of the environmental
authorities.
The Novosol ® team uses an extensive
network of partners - laboratories,
universities and industrial companies
- to test the treated materials.
It is essential to be able to measure
the physico-chemical qualities
of treated products, and new official
reference values are needed if
recycling solutions for this kind
of waste are to make the big time.
This research is opening up new uses
for hitherto neglected materials.
Whereas polluted sediments are
in most cases simply dumped at sea,
the mechanical, physico-chemical and
mineralogical properties of “Novosol ®
sediments” make them eligible for
recycling as road-building materials.
At the same time, with its skills in
evaluating cement and concrete, the
Ecole Centrale de Lille is examining,
together with Briqueteries du Nord,
how to incorporate treated
sediments into construction bricks,
in place of the usual alluvia and clays.
This study will supplement existing
studies on road-building materials
and the examination of a global
solution to the problem of dredging
sludges in Belgium. More than
20 outside partners have already
contributed with their research
to casting a new light on the
question of reprocessed sediments.
For further information, visit
www.novosol.be.
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 7

GroupPanorama
8
CHEMICALS
On the way to becoming
number one in fluorine chemistry
At the beginning of May, SBU Fluor
started construction of a new
plant in Onsan, South Korea, due
to come into service in 2007. Using
proven technologies, 120 employees
will then manufacture the inorganic
fluorine products sulfur hexafluoride,
iodine pentafluoride, elemental
fluorine and NOCOLOK ® in Onsan.
Solvay has invested EUR 50 million to
develop Asia’s new and fast-growing
markets as part of its growth strategy
of expanding both geographically and
in existing markets. The Onsan plant is
located close to major automotive and
electronics customers.“Onsan is a
significant milestone on the way to
becoming the world’s number one
supplier of fluorine specialties”, says
Dr. Bernd Wilkes, General Manager of
SBU Fluor. “Our commitment in Asia is
clearly aligned to new markets. The
activities will have no effect on
existing production facilities.”
The new look for Radel ® R
sterilizeable plastics produced
by Solvay Advanced Polymers
is all about delivering custom colors
with lower order minimums
and faster delivery times. Equally
important is doing this without
compromising the material’s ability to withstand more than
a thousand cycles of disinfection and steam sterilization with
no significant loss of properties. The challenge of providing
that performance in custom colors came with more than
a few manufacturing and marketing wrinkles. Custom colors
present an enormous opportunity for our clients
to distinguish their brands and their products in a very
The eye-catching visuals of “Customized
Color” campaign used Emperor Penguin
to illustrate that color doesn’t come
at the expense of performance.
The first soil is turned for the new SBU Fluor plant.
Production capacity for the above
mentioned products at Solvay Fluor’s
existing plants is already largely utilized
and cannot be readily expanded.
An international team will support
construction of the new plant.
“Worldwide cooperation is the key
to worldwide success”, Dr. Wilkes
underscores, “This is why Solvay’s
Korean employees have been
familiarizing themselves with products
and processes at the German SBU Fluor
location in Bad Wimpfen during
the last few months.”
PLASTICS
Radel ® R sterilizeable plastics: the look
you want. The performance you need
competitive marketplace. Whether they make sterilization
cases, trays, lids or other orthopedic products, customcolored
Radel ® R plastics can give them an exciting new look.
The business challenge was a simple one. Find a streamlined
way to produce custom color orders on smaller, limited
runs with turnaround times and delivery dates that
reflected the real world. The solution was manifold,
involving technical expansion and production improvements
coupled with enhanced scheduling responsiveness.
In the end, the results were the elimination of barriers
to obtaining custom colors based on volume runs
and a much shorter delivery cycle. To learn more about
custom-colored Radel ® R sterilizeable plastics, visit
www.solvaymedical.com.

PLASTICS
Specialty Polymers
on the move at Chinaplas
SBU Specialty Polymers took an
innovative marketing approach
at Chinaplas 2006 (Shanghai/China),
the key Asian exhibition for the plastics
and rubber industries.
On the same 102 m2 stand, various Group
enterprises – SolVin, Solvay Advanced
Polymers, Solvay Solexis
and Solvay Engineered Polymers – joined
forces to present their products
by market groupings, with specific
emphasis on customers’ expectations:
Design Engineering with Specialty
Polymers (healthcare, plumbing,
electricity, electronics, semiconductors,
telecommunications); High Performance
Materials for demanding conditions
(membranes, oil and gas, chemical
industry); Specialty Polymers and High
Performance Materials for cars (inside,
outside and under the hood) and Barrier
Polymers for packaging. The stand
also included presentations on the Group
and on its activities in China,
and spotlighted the innovations
of the exhibiting companies. Under
the slogan “Moving people and ideas
with specialty polymers and high
performance materials”, the Solvay stand
drew large numbers of visitors (Chinaplas
2006 hosted almost 60 000 visitors,
15% from outside China) and enabled
sales teams to make a host of contacts
with various stakeholders.
For the businesses taking part, the overall
experience was positive and the global
objectives were reached: establishing
new contacts, increasing market
awareness of Solvay and its specialty
polymers and developing existing
contacts. The same approach will be used
on the Solvay stand at the next
Kunststoffe fair, which opens on October
24, 2007 in Düsseldorf (Germany).
Moving people and ideas with
specialty polymers
and high performance materials.
Research &
Technology at
the “Entreprendre
2006” fair
Solvay Research & Technology
(Neder-over-Heembeek/Belgium) took
part in the 2006 “Salon Entreprendre”
(Entrepreneurship Fair) held in Brussels
on 22 and 23 March. Featured at the fair
was Solvay R&T’s unique “hosting
start-ups” project, that makes a wide
range of state-of-the-art competences
available to entrepreneurs and young
start-ups in one and the same location,
in chemistry, pharmaceuticals, plastics and
plastics processing.
The added value for beneficiaries
is beyond doubt. For Artelis, the first
start-up on the site in October 2005,
access to these services at competitive
prices was a key decision factor.
Participating in this fair is also a superb
opportunity to make business contacts,
especially with bankers who specialize
in supporting young entrepreneurs.
This rendezvous also facilitates contacts
with companies looking for premises
and development facilities. Face-to-face
contacts with member of the interface
cells of the main universities and with
representatives of research support
bodies have considerably enhanced
the visibility of this project.
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
9

GroupStrategy
10
Jacques van Rijckevorsel is known to everyone at Solvay as General
Manager of the Plastics Sector and a member of the Executive
Committee. He is also Group Innovation Sponsor, a “passionately
interesting” task which is particularly close to his heart and which places
him in an excellent position to talk to us about innovation at Solvay.
He shares with us his impressions, his convictions and his hopes.
Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General Manager
of the Plastics Sector and Group Innovation
Sponsor
Solvay live: Why such emphasis on
Innovation in the Group?
Jacques van Rijckevorsel: We live in
fascinating times. Exchanges of every
kind are multiplying across the planet,
the “intelligence” of which (in the meaning
of the capacity to interlink) is growing
exponentially. At the same time we
are becoming increasingly aware of the
limits of our natural resources: energy,
water, air, raw materials… Globally
speaking, our planet is living faster and
faster and our current production and
consumption models are leading us into
an impasse. We have to constr uct a
future that breaks with the present. This
is also the whole issue of “sustainable
development”, which is calling on us to
do more and better with less, but without
sacrificing growth and jobs. A large
part of the response to these challenges
lies in Innovation. Innovation is not an
option we are free to take or leave. We
have to take it. Governments and captains
of industry are multiplying the signals
and initiatives that say to us: we
need to innovate, and to do so fast and
well. This imperative, which is valid for
national economies, imposes itself
with equal force on ever y enterprise
individually: competition is global and
less innovative enterprises will go to the
wall. But we also need to read the situation
positively: how many opportunities,
some of them gigantic, become
accessible to the best?
S.L.: Being Group Innovation Sponsor
is …?
J.vR.: … promoting the development
and deployment of this continuous
change for the better, inspiring new ways
of doing business, new objectives and
catalyzing decisions in these areas. This
is a mandate given to me by Comex in
its determination to respond to the challenges
I have outlined above.
Innovation
moving ahead

S.L.: As the six categories of the Solvay
Innovation Trophy show, innovation is
a multi-facetted reality…
J . v R . : Yes, which also means that
Innovation is a matter for each and every
one of us. Each of us fits into at least one
category. The Executive Committee has
set the ball rolling and demonstrated its
full support for the Innovation drive to
be cascaded right through the Group.
Ideally, all of us, wherever we are, should
be self-starters, responsible for our own
innovation efforts. Innovation should be
inherent to the way we set about our
work, not a bolt-on.
This is why one of the first things I did
as Innovation Sponsor was to publish an
Innovation Charter. This reaffirms several
principles, including that Innovation is
everyone’s business.
S.L.: And concretely?
J.vR.: More and more internal processes
are being aligned with the Group’s
Innovation drive. Human Resources, for
example, have introduced a system of
Innovation-linked personal bonuses for
managers. This should help Innovation
cascade rapidly into the four corners of
the Group. Innovation Champions have
been appointed in each Group entity and
networked to interact in real time on
ongoing initiatives.
The New Business Development (NBD) entity
now has a New Business Board with wellknown
outside personalities who bring a
different angle and formulate recommendations
on certain research directions. Every
“Innovation
is one of the most
important
investments a
company can make
to ensure its longterm
survival.”
year, SBUs and CCs are invited to present
their approaches and Innovation Scorecards to
the Executive Committee. And Comex itself
periodically assesses the Innovation process
and gives additional stimuli if needed.
As you can see, Innovation is being carried
out in a structured way, right across the
© SOLAR IMPULSE / EPFL - Artist Claudio Leonardi.
Solar Impulse: technological
innovation serving
sustainable development.
organization, with the impetus and direction
coming from the top.
S.L.: You mentioned the “Scorecard”
What is it exactly?
J.vR.: The Innovation “Scorecard” defines
a series of indicators which measure the
degree of Innovation within the Group.
This allows us to track progress over time
and assess how the various Group entities
are coming closer to their objectives.
S.L.: Let’s come back to this assessment.
What conclusions do you draw from it?
J.vR.: First and foremost it seems to
me right and important to remind ourselves
that this approach was bor n
143 years ago, along with the Group. It
would therefore be presumptuous to associate
a particular result with a particular
initiative. Let’s observe simply that our
Innovation drive appears to be broadening
and gathering speed. The number of
patent applications has increased by 50%
in three years. Our Scorecard too, shows
progress almost right across the board.
So much so that we can be confident to
meet and even exceed the three “challenges
for 2006” (see our Reference Points
page). Furthermore, entries for the Solvay
Innovation Trophy have reached a new
record with high quality projects. By
showing us what we are capable of, this
success opens the way to other even more
ambitious objectives. Would such a result
have been achieved without the innovative
and momentum-raising initiatives
which have sprung up everywhere?
J U L Y 2 0 0 6 11

12
GroupStrategy
S.L.: Are there lots of examples?
J.vR.: Yes, from local productivity gains
to strategic projects. Allow me to cite
some recent examples. These are concrete
and therefore a little “technical”. In
Pharmaceuticals: the new cell-based vaccine
production technology recently
rolled out at Solvay Pharmaceuticals at
Weesp (Netherlands) and shortly to be in
the USA. In Plastics: new vinyl and specialty
polymers technologies, thanks also
to the acquisitions of Mississippi Polymer
Technologies and Gharda. In Chemicals:
an opening towards Organic Chemistry
with the acquisition of Girindus, the new
H 2 O 2 process or the new Epicerol TM
process. At NBD, the advances we have
made in fuel cells, like the SolviCore joint
venture or our participation in Conduit
Ventures, leading in turn to a new collaboration
with CMR. At DCRT, the development
of the Novosol ® process for stabilizing
and recycling canal and lock
dredging sludge. In Finance, the recasting
of our financial processes in the context
of the 3S project, and the Nafta
factoring initiative in North America. In
the Legal Department: the OCAP (1) training
tool. In Communication: the new
Solvay live and the dynamic adaptation to
the demands of the internal and external
target audiences. In Asia-Pacific: the
shock team that is helping us grow. In
Europe: the ideas management, emulation
and replication systems in Germany,
Iberia, France, Italy… And in South
America, the root-and-branch updating of
our industrial vision. There are many other
quality examples everywhere, so please
excuse me for not being exhaustive…
“In 10 years’ time we may
find ourselves in domains
we don’t even imagine today.”
S.L.: And the future direction for the
Group?
J.vR.: In future, each SBU will be taking
charge of its own destiny, with its strategic
vision examined by Comex at least
once a year. Multi-SBU partnerships are
also being built, such as the Solution
Units promoted by the Chemical Business
Deployment entity.
At Group level, our New Business Board
has opted to explore two of the three top
strategic technologies selected by the
prestigious Battelle (2) research group:
innovative materials (including for electronics)
and sustainable energy (including
fuel cells).
Solvay is the technology partner for Solar
Impulse, the solar aircraft dreamed up by
Bertrand Piccard, a project that will push
us to the limits of what materials can and
ought to deliver.
Externally, several of our SBUs have
signed up to InnoCentive, a world-wide
network of 80 000 scientists, offering
leading-edge expertise unavailable elsew
h e r e . I n t e r n a l l y, t h e S c i e n c e f o r
Innovation Congress brought together
140 researchers from across the Group to
focus our competences around major
issues like nanotechnologies… As you can
s e e , t h e b e e h i v e i s b u z z i n g w i t h
projects.
S.L.: You have hardly mentioned global
competition...
J.vR.: Some people say this complicates
things, and it’s true. But it can also be a
source of at times unsuspected opportunities.
Let us never underestimate human
beings’ capacities to create and adapt.
S.L.: Including those of people from
emerging countries?
J.vR.: We need to look at emerging
countries in two ways. Yes, there is the
short-term vision of low cost competition.
We respond to this by choosing those
professions in which we remain the best,
in which we are increasingly specializing,
and to which we give the resources of
excellence. But alongside this relatively
classical vision, I would like to juxtapose
that of the opportunity that these countries
offer us. First of all, they are keen
for growth and we can participate in this.
Second, we can also open up to their creativity,
their curiosity, their spirit of enterp
r i s e . T h e y i m p e l u s o n t o w a r d s a
planetary view of progress. We have an
enormous amount to learn from these
countries.
S.L.: What does the Solvay Innovation
Trophy represent for you?
J.vR.: Three things: A festive moment
where all eyes are focused on certain
achievements. An event where one is
delighted at the sheer amount of energy
and enthusiasm invested by those who
have taken part, who have succeeded, and
who have worked hard to defend their
projects.
A time for reflection also, to question our
creative capacities and draw lessons in
order to do even better. Finally, a stimulus,
an impetus, a goad for the future.•
(1) Online Competition Awareness Program.
(2) See www.battelle.org/forecasts.

Dossier
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
Innovation
is everyone’s business
THE INNOVATION TROPHY BLENDS EXPERTISE, COMPETENCE AND KNOW-HOW WITH CREATIVITY, PASSION AND
ENERGY. GROUP INNOVATION CHAMPION BRIGITTE LAURENT REVIEWS WITH US WHY SOLVAY ORGANIZES AN
INNOVATION TROPHY, HOW IT HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME, AND THE MAIN EMPHASIS OF THE 2006 EDITION.
The Solvay Innovation Trophy, a recurring landmark in
the Group’s drive for Innovation, will be held this year for
the fourth time. Each successive Innovation Trophy since
1999 has been larger than its predecessor and attracted
growing attention, both inside and outside the Group.
Organizing it is a project in itself, involving a number of employees
throughout the year. Despite its potent symbolism for the entire
Innovation drive, this Group event is in fact only just one of a
series of initiatives. To mention trophies only, we have the Trophy
and Creativity Awards in the Chemicals Sector, the Pioneer Awards
in Pharmaceuticals, various site-level Innovation Trophies, Innodrive
at Pipelife, and the Solvin Award for innovative PVC clients, all
contributing to dynamizing our creative capacity.
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Dossier
14
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006 INTRODUCING OUR JU
Encouraging the teams
The Innovation Trophy exists to recognize the contributions
that teams make through their innovations, and more generally
to encourage the innovation reflex. But why recognize only
the handful of innovations that make it to a trophy? In any competitive
environment, healthy emulation inspires us to be constantly
setting ourselves new challenges. In a business corporation
it’s the same thing: Innovation progresses by employees pursuing
ambitious objectives. The important thing is to have lots of
projects participating. When we say encourage, of course the
Trophy stimulates Innovation. But it is important not to see it
in isolation, but as part of a drive to embed Innovation step by
step into employees’ behaviour and thinking. In 2003 the Group
published its Innovation Charter and invited everyone to contribute
to the drive. In 2004 Group managers were asked at
their annual assessment interviews to rank their contributions
towards Innovation on a scale of zero to four and defend their
choice. In 2005, all managers, in consultation with their superiors,
set themselves one “Innovation” objective, to be included
in their personal performance assessment in 2006.
Measuring and comparing project quality
The Trophy is a very special event in several ways. First as an
opportunity to ask what benefits earlier trophies have brought.
What has become of the projects presented then? What new
products and processes have they given us? How have they
taken us further along the learning curve?
Pre-selecting projects from their own units is also a privileged
moment for managers to see what direction Innovation is moving
in, how far projects have advanced, how good they are; an
exercise that becomes more difficult each time with the rising
numbers and quality of entries.
The Trophy is also an occasion to exchange ideas and give
visibility to all proposed projects. Through Solia (http://innovation.solvay.com)
and Solvay live everyone can learn about
ongoing initiatives, establish contacts and share their knowledge.
For Solvay, the Trophy is also time to reflect on challenges
and priorities. As Jacques van Rijckevorsel, General
Manager of the Plastics Sector and Group Innovation Sponsor
The jury is presided by Jacques van
> External Jury
ALPHEUS BINGHAM
CEO, InnoCentive. Board
member, Fast Track
Systems, Collaborative
Drug Discovery, Phase
Forward, YourEncore,
Coalesix. Visiting Scholar, National Centre
for Supercomputing Application,
University of Illinois (US).
“I am working on meta-innovation (innovating
on how we innovate), and looking for new
collaboration models. Without risk, innovation is
doomed. The Trophy encourages appropriate risktaking.
One of the best strategies for remaining
creative is to be surrounded by creative people
and ideas. So I look forward to learning about the
innovations and meeting all of the nominees.”
JOHN BUTT
CEO, Conduit Ventures
(UK). Former Director,
Citigroup Global
Markets, and Price
Waterhouse LLP
International Privatization Group.
Biochemistry degree from University
of St. Andrews. MBA from University
of North Carolina (US).
“Innovation comes not only from having the
most elegant scientific discovery, but also
putting in place the required systems to extract
value from the innovation. The Trophy sends
the right signals to talented individuals that an
innovation culture is supported and potentially
rewarding. As a jury member I look forward
to exchanging ideas on the challenges facing
new technologies, and the different criteria
and steps required to bring such
technologies to the market.”
LUDO VAN DER HEYDEN
Solvay Chair in
Technological
Innovation, INSEAD
(France). Wendel Chair
in the Large Family
Firm, INSEAD. Recipient of Mercurius
Award from Fedis Association, and ECCH
European Case Award 2005. Formerly
on the faculty of Yale and Harvard
Universities (US).
“I am involved in numerous projects focused
on innovation in business models. I direct
INSEAD’s Advanced Management Program, which
increasingly addresses the need for innovation.
At the individual, team and organizational levels,
the Trophy is a meaningful way to communicate,
celebrate, and prepare for the future. It is also
a unique way to take the pulse of innovation
inside a great international company. ”

RY
Rijckevorsel and coordinated by Brigitte Laurent.
HERVÉ LEBRET
Manager, Innogrants,
Ecole Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne
(Switzerland). Formerly
with Index Ventures.
Former Dean of Studies, ENSTA. PhD
in electrical engineering, Université
de Rennes (France).
“My activity at EPFL is exclusively about
innovation: identifying and supporting innovative
projects. I try to stimulate risk taking, as
innovation is also about being more tolerant to
risk and possible failure. I organize events and
invite innovators to share their experiences.
People need role models. This Trophy is an example
that can encourage others to develop their
own projects.”
BRUNO VAN
POTTELSBERGHE
Solvay Innovation Chair,
Solvay Business School,
Université Libre de
Bruxelles (Belgium).
Chief Economist, European Patent Office.
Formerly Vice-president, Solvay Business
School, and Director of MBA and
International Exchange Programmes.
“Innovation and intellectual property are my daily
concerns: I teach innovation economics
and management. This Trophy shows
management’s dedication to an innovation
culture. It improves the company’s image
by emphasizing its social role. And it rewards
the creativity and innovation of employees.
I enjoy discovering the forward thinking teams
and their projects, as well as the intense
Committee debates.”
RENATE A.
WEISSENHORN
Head of the European
Commission’s DG
Entreprise “Support for
Innovation” unit.
Formerly Head of Enterprise Unit (DG/
unit A6). Degrees in accountancy and
foreign relations, University
of Economics in Vienna (Austria).
“My Unit helps companies make better use of
innovative technologies. It also assists innovation
development in the European Regions. I am familiar
with the daily challenges faced by innovative
entrepreneurs, companies and innovation support
structures. The Trophy is a new service to get ideas
to the market faster and promote cooperation
between the public and private sectors. I hope to
get insight into how an innovation system works
within an industrial group.”
> Internal Jury
CAROLYN EGBERT
Representing the
Pharmaceutical Sector
and the USA. Global
Head of Human
Resources, Solvay
Pharmaceuticals. Formerly in-house
counsel, Merrell-Dow Pharmaceutical
Company. Degrees in pharmacology
and law (US).
“Innovation is a major key to sustainable
growth and it continues Solvay's long tradition
of valuable contributions to consumers
and markets everywhere. The benefits
of the Trophy are enormous. It is a symbol
for one of the several core principles that
define Solvay. As a jury member I will receive a
deeper understanding of the commitment
that Solvay and its employees make
to sustain innovation.”
MAURO FURLANETTO
Representing the
Plastics Sector and
South America.
Manager Plastics
Sector Supply Chain
Mercosur, Solvay
Indupa (Argentine). With Solvay since
1980 as electrical engineer, process
engineer and industrial development
manager.
“Innovation has to be considered as the
mechanism to differentiate a company from
its competitors. The Trophy increases employee
motivation worldwide, boosting the
commitment to the Mission and Values of Solvay
group. As a jury member I will have an exclusive
opportunity to share innovation experiences
and bring new ideas to Mercosur.”
ANDRÉ NOTHOMB
Representing the
Chemicals Sector and
Asia. Director, RBU
Barium/Strontium
Asia. President,
Chemicals Sector/Asia,
Solvay Korea. With Solvay since 1989
in Singapore, Japan and Korea.
Graduated from Solvay Business
School, ULB.
“The Daehan Specialty Chemicals team won
two Chemicals Sector innovation trophies.
I believe innovation is essential for a company
to survive because the days of our existing
businesses and practices are numbered.
As a jury member I hope to get new
inspiration and a chance to confront
our approaches with those of real experts.”
JEAN-MARIE SOLVAY
Representing
shareholders and New
Business Development
(NBD). Director,
member of the New
Business Board, Solvay. CEO, Real Estate
Development, Teimmo. CEO, Germany
Real Estate Construction and
Development, Albrecht re GmbH & Co.KG
Formerly CFO, Business Development,
Iridian Technologies (Switzerland),
and CEO, Helitradewinds (US).
“Throughout my career I have always been
confronted with the urgent need to find
innovative solutions to fulfil customers’ needs.
In each case the challenge is unique
and exhilarating and customer satisfaction
determines whether a business lives or dies.
This Trophy fosters the spirit of innovation
and gives recognition to all those working hard
to serve the customer.”
CHRISTINE TAHON
Representing the
Functional Managements
and Europe. HSE
Director, with Solvay
since 1980 working in R&D materials,
engineering & construction, and the
alkali sector (NOH/Belgium). Degrees in
civil and material sciences engineering,
Faculté Poytechnique de Mons (Belgium).
“Many current HSE issues require new
approaches and technologies, especially those
that are environmentally friendly. Innovation
visibility is essential to support Solvay’s global
approach. The Trophy event is one way to
achieve this. Additional support for innovation
is needed to insure continuous development.”
NOËL TRITZ
Representing the
European Works
Council (EWC). Founder
member of the EWC,
Secretary since 2000.
Joined Solvay Laboratory Division
(Tavaux /France) in 1968. Quickly became
involved in trade unionism (May 1968),
first in the local works council,
then at a national level.
“My engagement on the local, national
and European levels emphasizes the need for
innovation so that tomorrow chemistry will still
have a place in Europe. It is also necessary
to be imaginative in developing renewable
energy and managing the burden of waste.
The Group must remain a leader in order
to insure its long term economic health.”
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Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
16
reminds us: “Innovation is a must for every enterprise. We have
to innovate fast and well and construct a future that breaks with
the present.”
Concrete outcomes
Many of the winning projects from earlier trophies – in particular
new products and new processes – are today household
names at Solvay and making significant contributions to growth
and performance. Everyone at Solvay knows Peptisyntha, now
part of the SBU Molecular Solutions, and Vinyloop ® , both winners
in 1999. The 2000 winners included Hugo & AMAP
ANTOINE AMORY
INTELLECTUAL ASSETS MANAGEMENT
We were facing enormous technical
problems getting our project
launched. At one point we were close
to abandoning it because all the
objectives seemed far too ambitious
given the limited internal resources
available to us. The problems were,
however, solved in an innovative way
by setting up a number of
partnerships which provided the
missing expertise.
JOACHIM BELT
CHEMICALS BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
As the Innovation Champion of SBU
Fluor, and then of Chemicals Sector
Business Deployment, I had the
opportunity to organize Innovation
Trophies for this SBU and then for
the Chemicals Sector, in 2005, with
Georges Snoeck. This was a
tremendous experience too! It is of
course very hard work gathering all
the projects, preparing the selection
session with the jury and defining
“The real Challenge is
making optimal use of the
energy of the 1 381 employees
involved and of the 312 projects
counted this year, as well
as all the other projects.”
Brigitte Laurent,
Group Innovation
Champion.
Innovation Champions on record
(performance improvement) and
“Turnaround at Tavaux” (management
improvement), a project that
got a whole site working together as
a team. Major investments have since
been made in the USA to bring into
production Inergy’s “PZEV fuel system”, one of the six 2003
winners. Also widely deployed since then is the “H 2 O 2 production
reviewed and corrected” project, the winner in the
“Performance Improvement” category. It is important to stress
that other less media-grabbing projects have been just as fruitful
as Innovation Trophy winners and that certain projects would
probably have made it without the Trophy. But the Trophy can
strengthen an image, open doors and motivate teams.
Each new Trophy is more successful than the last: 312 projects were
submitted for this 4 th edition. The various managements pre-selected
150 projects. 96 will finally be presented to the jury, who will plunge
into this voluminous dossier during these two summer months.
This uptrend in the number of initiatives is also reflected in the
Group Innovation Scorecard indicator which consolidates the number
of New Business projects across the various entities: 223 projects
in 2003, 266 in 2004 and 308 in 2005.
This process is clearly paying dividends in terms of keenness to
develop new projects. It is also demonstrating just how much
The Innovation Champions network was created in 2004 and is led by Group Innovation Champion
Brigitte Laurent. Each SBU, CC and BSC in turn has its own Innovation Champion, tasked with promoting
and organizing its own Innovation drive. Innovation Champions' profiles vary according to the entities
they represent: more R&D-minded in Specialties entities, more quality coordination-oriented in entities concerned
with performance improvement, more project management-minded elsewhere in the organization, etc.
Our Innovation Champions play a vital role in the deployment of Innovation in the Group.
It is they who have been the driving force behind the early stages of this fourth Solvay Innovation Trophy.
19 of them give their testimonies.
the prize-giving ceremony. But it is
also very impressive to see how
Innovation is being integrated into
Group strategy and how the Chemicals
Sector is moving more and more
into Specialties.
FRANÇOIS CARETTE
ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION AND
MAINTENANCE COMPETENCE CENTRE
Collecting projects for the Innovation
Trophy was a valuable opportunity to
discover the many competences, skills
and creativity existing within my own
entity. The toughest part was whittling
down the lists of candidates we finally
put forward for the Group Trophy,
a long and arduous task given the
enthusiasm of the project teams.
GRAHAM CARR
SBU CAPROLACTONES
As Innovation Champion (not my
word!), I have been active in our small
SBU Caprolactones since 1999. I have
coordinated the presentation of

creativity there is in the Group and the value of healthy emulation.
“The real Challenge is making optimal use of the energy of the
1 381 employees involved and of the 312 projects counted this year,
as well as all the other projects across the Group. This is why the
many initiatives by different entities to organize their own Awards
are just as important”, concludes Group Innovation Champion
Brigitte Laurent.
We can also draw parallels here with another Scorecard indicator
which shows the evolution of the number of ideas collected
per employee – 0.52 in 2003, 0.56 in 2004, 0.69 in 2005 –
essentially via the ideas box.
The 2006 Trophy: growth and competitiveness
“For the 2006 Solvay Innovation Trophy, we have kept the best of the
previous trophies. We have also launched some new ideas to give the
Trophy even greater value”, Brigitte Laurent tells us. “The categories
are the same as in 2003 (New Business, Customer-Oriented Projects,
Performance Improvement, Management Improvement, Sustainable
Development and Citizenship), except that ‘Transposable Innovations’
becomes ‘Replicated Innovations’ By shifting from ‘transposable’ to
‘replicated’, we want to place the accent on what has actually been
implemented.”
The call for projects has been coordinated by the Innovation
several files, two of which have won
Chemicals Sector trophies. The Innovation
Trophy 2003 was an unforgettable
experience for me, even though we came
away empty-handed. I will never forget
the artistic performance to display
chemistry.
PIERRE COERS
HEALTH-SAFETY-ENVIRONMENT
Being a Champion is not all fame and
glory. This morning I passed a facetious,
if not ironical colleague, who once again
greeted me with a loud “Aaah, good
morning Chammpiyon” (pronounced like
the sound of a popping cork). My
Outlook awakes from its slumber and
brings me down to earth with a bump:
scorecards, datasheets, Trophy, all
awaiting my attention, deadlines,
deadlines, deadlines… the flames
of Innovation attack my diary…
Where can I flee to?
ÉTIENNE COLLIGNON
FRANCE
The French Innovation Champions spent an
entire day together to speed up the
processing of twenty or so ideas. They
invited project authors, experts, managers
and employees to a “Beehive" meeting. Two
hours of spontaneous exchanges between
these 60 people served to invalidate or
redirect certain ideas and accelerate the
processing of others. Recognizing and
motivating the authors of the selected
ideas was another objective
of the operation.
JUAN ANTÓNIO DELATTE
COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE CENTRE
AND IBERIA
Xavier Catalan, the Managing Director
of Benvic called me into his office.
“Juan”, he said to me, “I’m convinced
that unless we stake everything on
innovation, our future is limited.
I would like you to help us stimulate
innovation at Benvic”. We set
to work. He had clear ideas, and
I was enthusiastic at the idea,
and his employees were committed
and motivated. The outcome is that
Benvic has filed a patent application for
a “colorimeter” with unique features.
And there is more in the pipeline.
The recipe for successful Innovation
• Take a good handful of objectives: make sure they are fresh and
good-sized. Remove at once any mediocre or timid objectives.
You need ambitious objectives.
• Place these objectives in the hands of a motivated management
team which is not afraid to take risks and make mistakes. It is
management commitment which makes the cake rise.
• Marinate in a favourable corporate culture. After of course carefully
clarifying the concepts of calculated risk, responsibility and the
independence of your guests. Reserve in a separate bowl: be careful
at this stage to prevent the dough from collapsing.
• Beat everything together as a team, as a lone wolf is a lost wolf.
Daringly add a dash of ingredients from elsewhere: exotic fruits,
selected spices… Originality is a key component of novelty.
• Place in the oven in a dish generously buttered with communication,
watch the cooking process carefully and banish improvisation,
because Innovation is very different from fantasy: big kitchens need
to be run tightly.
• Before serving, don’t forget a pinch of reward, but in particular
decorate with recognition and serve with brio: this will make
it all the more tasty.
• And bear in mind that Innovation is an appetite-whetter: your guests
will ask for more!
PIERRE DEWITTE
SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
How do we arouse, encourage, amplify
everyone’s creativity to innovate? Certain
examples fascinated me. Luc De
Brabandere showed us an analogy-based
method. In his Innovation Café, Tom
Balsano at SAP challenged us with other
people's ideas. Anne Goldberg used TRIZ
(Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) at
Marietta. In every case “inventive
thinking is inevitably dissident thinking,
opening us up to ourselves and the
outside world”.
EILEEN DIAKUN
SBU DETERGENTS
One of my SBU customers defined
Innovation as the ‘transfer of knowledge
into money’. It is also ‘matching what’s
needed with what’s possible’.
Hence the significant challenge
of innovation in an industrial context
and in particular in chemistry. Finding
the perfect answer to a particular
problem is perhaps less important
in itself than persevering
and networking to get there.
ERN EDMONDS
SBU MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS
Just arriving in Molecular Solutions, I was
immediately overwhelmed by the ingenuity
and energy of the scientists
and engineers I encountered - often well
beyond the cutting edge of new science
invention, into the realms of exploration.
The Innovation Trophy has been a golden
opportunity for the new teams to convert
ideas into innovation. As a humble physicist
my role has been to play professional
simpleton: “if it can be explained to me,
anyone can understand it.”
EDVAM FONSECA
BRAZIL & ARGENTINA
We created a seminar for our employees,
bringing together the Values
and Innovation around the message:
Innovation is a result of Teamwork.
We took elements from the “Living Values”
seminar, adding information on the Solvay
Innovation process and some creativity
techniques from Professor Edward De Bono.
Taken by groups of 20 people a time in
2004 and 2005,this seminar was evaluated
really well by all attendants.
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DossierSolvayInnovationTrophy2006
PAUL HARDING
NAFTA
In January 2006 we hosted Brigitte
for an innovation showcase at Alpharetta
and Houston, at which people reviewed
projects on which they were working
and intended to submit to the Innovation
Trophy competition. The typical comment
made by participants was: “I had
no idea we had so many interesting
and innovative projects in our
organization”. The lesson here is that
encouraging innovation at Solvay may
be as simple as just taking the time
to publicize it.
HIELKE HOEKSTRA
PIPELIFE
I was amazed to see how proud
the entities are of their projects…
The fact of filling in the detailed
project forms made them much more
visible and understandable to me. It also
highlighted the fact that innovation is
relative. What is very
innovative for some people
is not necessarily for others.
18
“The Trophy points to the importance of thinking
today how we are going to perform tomorrow.”
Champions (IC) network. This has allowed them to gain visibility
in their role, to develop specific initiatives and to offer
advice to their teams whenever needed.
The selection criteria differ from 2003. This time they are six in
number: contributing to growth, contributing to competitiveness,
creating value for our customers, acting for sustainable
development, developing new and original projects and innovating
in partnerships. These criteria express our desire to embed
the Trophy in the Group’s wider thrust for growth and competitiveness.
With its main theme “A better future. What do you
see that we don’t?” the Trophy points to the importance of
thinking today how we are going to perform tomorrow. “We
must manage the present as a consequence of the future”, the
Chairmens of the Executive Committee and of the Board of
Directors wrote in our 2005 Annual Report. It is today’s innovations
that will pave the way to tomorrow’s successes.
And next... The winning projects will be chosen by an international
jury of outside personalities and internal members
(including representatives of the Sectors, Regions and
YVES HONTOIR
APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES ANALYSIS
Our entity covers in- and on-line
industrial analysers, bridging two
worlds, that of Process Instrumentation
and Control and that of Laboratory
Analytic Technologies. Coming from
the former background, I enjoyed getting
to know better the lab
people and their techniques.
More synergies are already
on the way.
SANDER VAN HULSENBEEK
PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR AND THE
NETHERLANDS
The SIT 2003 celebrations were
an unforgettable moment of great
pride and of a sense of working
together: the captivating presentations
in the afternoon, the films shown,
some of which, including my own,
drew audience applause,
and the evening show.
In brief, a Solvay Innovation Trophy
is the occasion for us to gain visibility
and possibly fame!
Competence Centres). This
jur y will select a winning
team in each category and
award the special partnership
prize. The of ficial prizegiving
ceremony will take
p l a c e i n B r u s s e l s a t t h e
closing ceremony of the
Innovation days planned for
the December 19 and 20.
In conclusion, well beyond
the context of the competition
or festive event, the
Trophy proclaims loud and
clear the importance of creating
value, the need for
everyone to contribute, the
role and importance of active management involvement, and
the link between strategic thinking and teamwork results ●
HORST KROEGER
SBU FLUOR
It’s very invigorating to see how many allies
our SBU has in other Business Units:
• Plastics has entered a project that
involves a fluorinated product, SIFREN ® ;
• SBU Molecular Solutions has submitted
a project under our name which spotlights
a multipurpose production concept from the
Bad Wimpfen plant;
• a project from the Central Laboratory
describing how to analyse and characterize
high purity hydrofluoric acid.
Fluorine is decidedly the most attractive
and reactive atom in the entire
periodic table.
MARC LACROIX
SBU ADVANCED FUNCTIONAL MINERALS
Acting as an Innovation Champion is not
just a matter of promoting or supporting
innovation and replication within the
Group. Very soon I found myself facing a
new challenge: how can we go and find
sources of innovation from beyond the
Group boundaries? The reply that a group
of colleagues and I found was the
?
BE OUR GUEST
FOR THE
INNOVATION
DAYS.TAKE
PART IN OUR
QUIZ
You know everything about the
deployment of Innovation at
Solvay … or you will after reading
this issue of Solvay live. Follow the
clues and find the answers
to the 10 questions. Surf
to www.innovation.solvay.com (1)
from August 16 to September 22
to take part in the Quiz.
The 10 winners will be invited (2)
to the Innovation days on
December 19 and 20 in Brussels.
Now that’s worth spending
10 minutes testing your
knowledge on!
Happy searching and good luck.
(1) A specific address will we available for Pipelife
and Inergy Automotive.
(2) Travel and hotel costs paid.
“Innocentive@ Solvay” program.
Can you imagine that Solvay’s R&D today
has the power of over 80 000 researchers?
And that you pay only for the successes!
ALEXIS MARCHAND
FINANCE
If you ask for my personal assessment of
the Innovation Trophy initiative, I would say
that the Innovation Trophy is a formidable
opportunity for all of us to get the message
that we are all innovative (at times without
being aware of it) and to have our work
recognized by the outside world.
GISÈLE MARÉCHAL
SBU SODA ASH
The Innovation Champion is the lubricant –
but the engine driving Innovation is the SBU
Top Management team. My satisfactions as
Innovation Champion?
To feel the energy and to see good ideas
successfully deployed on the ground.
It’s also seeing Innovation approaches
from different parts of the SBU
rewarded internally or externally.

© Henrik Sorensen / Getty Images
New business
New products,
markets, applications and services.
New entreprises
\ INNOVATION AT PHILIPS LIGHTING \ Page 20
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 22
\ The best of both worlds \ A decisive step towards supremacy \ Nutrition: opening new horizons
\ Purely competitive \ A product that makes life easier for the paper industry
\ A miracle product… that appeared out of nowhere \ Solvay, the leading producer of H 2O 2 in China
\ Made-to-measure manholes \ One brand, several products
\ A new product for high end solvent formulations \ A wall plaster that proudly displays its colours
\ The competitiveness of “honeycombs” \ Sodium bicarbonate: a specific partner for each application
\ Everything is replaceable \ Winning the leadership \ An end to toxic accumulation \ New
developments for capacitors \ The Swiss knife of the pharmaceutical industry
> Contact person and team
> Entity submitting the project
JULY 2006
19

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
20
The lighting market is under heavy pressure from
an invasion of Chinese products. How do we
react to such a situation? How can we protect our
know-how? Should we relocate? Innovation
is central to Philips Lighting’s response.
Innovating
to stay up front
Lighting life has changed 360 degrees in
recent years”, was Klaas Vegter's opening shot. “The
good old days when Philips, General Electric and
Osram together shared 70% of the world lighting
Philips
“At
products market between them are long since gone”, the Chief
Technology Officer of the Lamps business group told Solvay live.
The shock came from the Far East. For the past fifteen years,
Chinese companies have been flooding the lighting market (incandescent
and TL lamps) with lower quality but very cheap products.
“They penetrate the market through major retail chains”, Klaas
Vegter explains. “So we set up shop in China where we produce certain
low energy consumption lamps – real ‘commodity’ products –
whilst improving their quality to maintain our brand value.”
Protecting one’s know-how
Philips Lighting, on the other hand, protects its mainstream business.
“Office lighting, industrial lighting and street lighting are sectors
where longevity, quality and reliability are still criteria of choice.
In certain environments it is an expensive job replacing blown lamps!”
There’s no question of know-how transfer or cooperation with
China. “Here we jealously guard our know-how”, Klaas Vegter warns.
But competition is not just about products. New technologies have
irrupted into the lighting market, totally changing the entry barriers
to the profession. Semiconductors were foreign to the Philips culture.
Today, Taiwan alone has hundred of companies which together
can feed the entire world market with light-emitting diodes (LEDs,
OLEDs). Philips’ response to this situation was to acquire
Californian LED producer Limuleds. “Diode production is still marginal
to our main business. However, we cannot rule out that one day
we will need diodes in our traditional applications, where we want
LED die (Light Emitting Diode).
to remain present.” Semiconductor technology is so different,
though, from that of traditional lighting, that the two worlds live
their own separate lives at Philips.
Innovating to maintain a lead
It is in traditional lighting that Philips remains leader. Here too
though, the Dutch company is feeling the growing pressure from
China. “We will remain the best only if we maintain our lead”,
Klaas Vegter acknowledges. The research department is first of
all confronted with a question of internal organization and recognition
of its true mission, see-sawing between “obligatory
service” to the operating units that finance its research projects,
and its need to pursue a longer-term vision, by definition of less
immediate interest to the operating units. Greater financial
autonomy was the first necessary step. “15% of our budget is now
devoted to long-term projects. I’m careful to make sure we do not
take on missions that are really the job of the operating units. I’m
putting my team back on the track of their real profession, that of
finding new ideas. Each team member is given 5% of his or her time
to explore new avenues, with bonuses for success! This has redynamized
my team.” Klaas Vegter has also demanded that each
team that is developing a new idea construct a demonstration

pilot model. No matter if this piece of equipment looks foolhardy
or a little mad, we need to touch and feel it. This dynamizes
team work (it is also great fun) and twice a year, R&D organizes
a demo day on its own premises which has a bit of the feel of an
inventions fair about it. “The marketing people are beginning to
come and look”, Klaas Vegter told Solvay live. “You swap ideas
differently in front of a contraption than in front of a diagram,
however smartly done.”
For Klaas Vegter, you don’t force someone to produce new ideas.
But once you’ve got thirty or so people together, there is a statistical
effect and new ideas emerge. “What stimulates creativity best
is the logic and consistency with which management encourages its
employees, by recognizing their efforts, providing logistic support and
with a direct impact on remuneration.”
No one likes being ridiculed! Within an enterprise like Philips,
everyone evolves within a hierarchy, and all managers occupy
positions vis-à-vis their peers that they have to protect. “It is the
most competent people in particular who hesitate to take risks, as
they are putting at stake their image, and at times their functions
or roles in their groups.” Developing a creative culture
means giving people confidence that they can take the risk of
advancing into unknown territory... Without paying the consequences
if it doesn't work out. •
© Digital Vision/John Cumming
The right
to be wrong
ccepting one’s own mistakes
“Aand those of others”, is a wellknown
management principle. “And
even so, it’s not as easy as that to
apply”, Klaas Vegter admits. “Let me
give you an illustration. We had
organized a project presentation day
for which I had strongly encouraged
my employees to be creative”, Klaas
Vegter recalls. “One of my researchers
made a very personal presentation of
his project in the form of a humoristic
little play. At the time I didn’t catch
onto his approach, and my face
probably expressed a certain
irritation. After his presentation, he
came up to me and apologized and
said how sorry he was he had taken
the wrong approach. It was then that
I understood his choice, and was
highly embarrassed. I answered that
on the contrary, I was impressed
by his daring and also his courage
to take the risk of doing things
differently from the rest. It was I who
had lacked imagination and openness.
I often use this example in front
of all the others. Even the Research
Director came close to discouraging
an original idea!”
New business
Innovation demo day
- sharing ideas and projects.
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
21

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
104190
22
PVC AND NATURAL FIBERS COMPOSITES:
A SYNERGISTIC MARRIAGE
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
PVC is without a doubt the most widely used
plastic in the home. It is therefore only
logical that it should meet the expectations
of consumers, who are becoming increasingly
demanding when it comes to design
and aesthetic innovations.
Hence the idea of setting up a marriage
between PVC and natural fibre composites
to make the most of two worlds: the
properties of PVC (low maintenance, good
stability in humid conditions, very good
reaction to fire, flexibility in terms of shapes
and colours) can be harmoniously combined
with the characteristics of natural fibres
(pleasant appearance, feel and even odour
of the wood and other fibres, tried and tested
rigidity, good stability for external uses).
The innovation consisted of the development,
in partnership with the fibre suppliers
and the clients, of shaped interior and exterior
materials but also injection moulds and films.
These materials can be handled as easily
as PVC (without the need for any specific
equipment), can be worked like wood (they
can be sawn and nailed) and can be recycled
in the same application without losing their
properties. Furthermore, as they contain 20 to
60% of natural fibres (including wood waste)
they help preserve non-renewable resources.
These kinds of wood-like composites are
already used in the US and are starting to gain
a foothold on the European market, offering
a promising potential for commercial
development.
> Claudine Bloyaert; Jean-François Cart; Xavier Coudry;
Dirk Dompas; Saramas Duangport; Isabelle Georges-
Guerand; Pierre Lomenech; Jean-Louis Lorand;
Carmelo Ricci; Wuthilaohaphan Siriporn; Richard
Thommeret; Alain Wyart.
> SBU VINYLS
104761
TSBM IS A NEW METHOD FOR PRODUCING FUEL
SYSTEM WITH FULL INTEGRATION OF COMPONENT
A DECISIVE STEP
TOWARDS SUPREMACY
The PZEV (Partial Zero Emission Vehicle)
was imposed in 2005 in certain American
States. Inergy took up the gauntlet and
developed TSBM (Twin Sheet Blow Molding)
as an answer to the generalization of this
regulation. Quite an achievement, as it not
only offers advantages in terms of a
reduction in pollution (emissions and noise)
but also cuts costs. The manufacturing
process developed allows molding and blow
molding in one single step, along with the
simultaneous integration of all of the system
components. The TSBM is the fruit of an
intense partnership between R&D (pilot line
in NOH between 2003 and 2005),
the industrial departments, the development
centres of the clients and external suppliers.
After conducting various tests on the
prototype and validating the industrial
procedures, the tool will be transferred
to Rottenburg in 2007. Inergy is expecting
to sell up to 3.4 million units of its system in
2012 and will do so by increasing by half the
number of new markets, in particular in Asia
where its strategic clients are concentrated.
They are already showing strong interest:
in addition to the various aforementioned
reductions, the TSBM will allow them
to increase the useful fuel volume of their
vehicles, to more easily integrate the various
components into fuel systems with a reduced
number of connections and thus simplify
the assembly lines. The TSBM process is so
revolutionary that is paves the way for
the development of new components for
the fuel systems of the future, sounding
the knell of steel tanks.
> Bjorn Criel; Mireille Paulus; Philippe Bournonville;
Pascal Dehenau; Franck Dhaussy; Serge Dupont;
Daniel Hayot; Frédéric Jannot; Hervé Lemoine;
Richard Lesschaeve; Barbara Mabed;
Philippe Martin; Pierre-François Tardy.
> SBU INERGY
105040
VITALOA: LET’S FEEL BETTER!
NUTRITION: OPENING
NEW HORIZONS
In a sector where scientific rigueur is a key
success factor, Vitaloa aims at producing
and selling nutritional ingredients that are
beneficial to our health. The first target
segments are the intestinal transit, the
mineral balance and the weight control.
The project is developed in cooperation
between Lactalis, the leading cheese
company in Europe and the second largest in
the field of fresh dairy products, bringing its
knowledge of the food industry and market
access, and Solvay, contributing both with a
raw material and with its
pharmaceutical/health expertise.
Vitaloa is based on a particular disaccharide
resistant to gastro-enzymes of which Solvay
Pharmaceuticals is the leading producer
world-wide – the GalactoFructose or
lactulose (DUPHALAC ® ). Vitaloa can be a
launching pad for Solvay to develop in a new
and growing market. The scientific and
pharmaceutical foundations of Solvay,
combined with the experience of Lactalis
create a simple recipe meant to succeed.
> Pascal Ronfard; Baerbel Grams; Chantal Heroux;
Perrine Immer; Jean-Jacques Maugas; Marc Welz.
> NBD

103495 104912
NANO-COMPOSITE TECNOFLON ® PFR
FOR SEMICON APPLICATIONS
PURELY COMPETITIVE
The demand for high quality
fluoropolymers entails the use
of compounds that meet the new criteria
of macromolecular chemistry. The resulting
challenge lies in the capacity to control the
macromolecular structures and to produce
compounds that combine the polymers and
highly dispersed fillers. That is the case of
our Tecnoflon ® perfluoroelastomers, which
have the highest chemical and thermal
resistance capacities of all the elastomers on
the market. They have been produced
through the combination of different
technologies held by Solvay Solexis. It is
important to point out that the nanoparticles
that have gone into the manufacture
of the Tecnoflon ® PFR 5910 and PFR 5920 are
effectively dispersed, thanks to a proprietary
co-coagulation technology, and not
agglomerated as is the case for several
materials unduly described as nanocomposites.
As is proven by their transparency. These
ultra-clean and ultra-resistant products are
used as joints in equipment earmarked for
the plasma etching of silicon wafers, which
necessitates the highest degree of purity,
the absence of metallic ions, good sealing
properties and exceptional chemical
resistance qualities. The first industrial sales
of Tecnoflon ® PFR started in 2005 in the semiconductor
sector. However, its performances
destine it for other segments such as the
pharmaceutical, food, medical and aerospace
industries, and for use in all processes that
call for a material of an extreme purity
combined with good mechanical properties.
> Vincenzo Arcella; Margherita Albano; Marco Apostolo;
Stefano Arrigoni; Giovanni Comino.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
SOLV-X, A NEW STABILIZER FOR PULP BLEACHING
A PRODUCT THAT MAKES
LIFE EASIER
FOR THE PAPER INDUSTRY
The paper industry has long since been
using hydrogen peroxide as a pulp
bleaching agent. The bleaching process calls
for the use of stabilisers (silicates) to avoid
the decomposition of the peroxide under
the effect of the metallic ions (manganese
and iron) which come from the soil in which
the tree has grown. The action of these ions
not only reduces the quality of the bleaching
but also affects the characteristics of the
pulp. Sodium silicate is introduced into
the process in order to counter these
negative effects. But given that the silicate
precipitates in the presence of calcium,
industrialists who use hard water face other
problems, since they frequently have
to replace or clean the equipment and
are confronted with difficulties when using
recycled water in the process. To overcome
all these problems, Solvay has developed
a new product, the SOLV-X, based on
a polyhydroxyacrylate molecule. Two
variants of the product are proposed, one
which is highly active and another less
active, to meet as much as possible the needs
of the paper industries. The product is
biodegradable, which tangibly reduces the
environmental impact. With SOLV-X, Solvay
offers an alternative to silicate with a new
product. One single competitor is present on
this niche market. A partnership has been set
up with the chemical company Clariant
for the development and subsequent
world-wide production of SOLV-X. Research
is also currently underway to check whether
the SOLV-X can be also used for paper
de-inking.
> Rodney Soccombe; Pierre Dournel;Anna Mannaerts.
> SBU H 2O 2
New business
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
23

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
104809
24
FERRATE OF SODIUM OR POTASSIUM:
A NEW PRODUCT FOR WATER TREATMENT
A MIRACLE PRODUCT…
THAT APPEARED
OUT OF NOWHERE
Ferrate of sodium (or potassium) is a
powerful oxidant, a biocide that coagulates
like ferric chloride in water: a unique
combination of properties for water
treatment, whether for water contaminated
with arsenic or manganese, with effluents
from dyeing or tanning activities. The only
problem is that this compound is very unstable
in solution and has never been produced in its
solid state. As part of a European project,
Solvay, along with eight partners, took up this
challenge.
The result, after four years of hard work, we
managed to:
• produce large batches of the product to feed
the post research;
• develop a technology for solid production
via a fluid bed;
• reduce the cost of the raw materials;
• carry out broad research into the treatment
of drinking water, municipal and industrial
wastes, and others…
The decision to roll out this project on
industrial scale should be announced in 2006.
> Léon Ninane; Claude Criado.
> NBD
104724
HIGH PURITY HYDROGEN PEROXIDE – NEW
MANUFACTURING PLANT AND JV IN CHINA
SOLVAY, THE LEADING
PRODUCER
OF H 2O 2 IN CHINA
China is witnessing a very strong growth
in the demand for high purity hydrogen
peroxide for the production of semiconductors.
Surprisingly, China currently has
no H2O2 producer. The obstacles to the
investment are the high amounts required
and the fear of losing precious know-how.
Therefore, China continues to import high
purity H2O2 from Japan and Taiwan, keeping
away from European imports because the
transport cost for these high purity products
is too high. Solvay decided to find a way
around all these difficulties. First of all, by
developing a new purification process that is
much less expensive and also by carrying out
in China only the last stages of the product
purification. The previous stages will be
carried out in the Solvay plant in Bernburg
(Germany). The transport cost of the
intermediary product remains standard.
The two plants are therefore intrinsically
linked and the industrial secret protected.
Again to protect its know-how, Solvay will
build the new Chinese plant… in Germany!
The plant will be commissioned on site
before being transferred to China in separate
parts. Such a project could not be developed
without a solid Chinese partner. An in-depth
search made it possible to identify Suzhou
Electronic Materials, a reputed producer of
high purity chemical products based in the
Chinese “silicon valley”. It is with this partner
that Solvay has created Interox SEM Co. Ltd,
in which it holds a 51% stake. After being
developed in Bernburg, the plant has headed
for China to be assembled. It is set to be
inaugurated in September 2006.
> Steve Dobson; Juergen Bosse; Matthias Dabrunz;
Robert Owen; Thomas Ploetzke; Michael Sell;
Luzhen Wang.
> SBU H 2O 2
104659
PRO 630-800-1000 MANHOLES.
MADE-TO-MEASURE
MANHOLES
Manholes are key to the drains and sewer
business and must be wide enough
to allow easy access. To gain a foothold on
this new market, from which it was absent
until now, the SBU Pipelife got its creative
juices going and put its finger on a gap
in the market. It has developed a competitive
and original solution that is able to reduce
the material and labour costs. Its new
generation manholes are manufactured
in such a way as to allow the various
compatible components to be easily
assembled. Thanks to this design, the client
can enjoy a high degree of flexibility. He can
ask for specific configurations, which is a
huge advantage when you think that these
kinds of manholes often have to be installed
in difficult, extreme or unexpected
environments, often at the intersection
of several pipelines. The R&D department,
in partnership with manufacturers, came up
with assembly machines that are specially
designed to optimise the quality of the
investment and to reduce the cost. Several
machines have been developed to meet
the needs of various markets.
The result, which is a clear move away
from the products offered by the
competition, immediately went down well
with the clients, who are particularly interest
in the possibilities of customisation. Sales
exceeded forecasts from the outset,
but Pipelife has not rested on its laurels
and has gone out to meet prospective clients
with a promotional lorry.
> Hielke Hoekstra; Hans Guitonneau;
Andrzej Kowalewski; Vilnis Puce.
> SBU PIPELIFE

105133
SOLVAIR TM : NEW BRAND
FOR ALL AIR QUALITY PRODUCTS
ONE BRAND,
SEVERAL PRODUCTS
In the US, as in Europe, the air quality
control is increasing, pushing the industries
to constantly improve the purification
of their air emissions. Taking into account the
important potential business this context
represents, the commercial teams of the
different Solvay Chemicals’ SBUs organised
themselves in an original way in order
to effectively approach this market and its
customers. The idea is to offer solutions
rather than presenting a simple portfolio
of separate commercial products. The teams
worked together to set up a transversal
platform able to study the customer’s needs
and provide him with the ideal air quality
control solution. The products can come
indiscriminately from any of the Group’s
units. The team is totally client focused when
it comes to determining the optimal solution
in line with the specificities of the demand.
To acquire the necessary visibility, a new
brand - SOLVAir TM - has been registered
and deployed according to the products.
A commercial communication campaign has
been launched in the professional press to
inform the market of this new partner. Under
one and the same brand, SOLVAir TM covers
several sodium carbonates, sodium sulphite
and oxygen peroxide. Having got off the
ground in May 2005, SOLVAir TM should
channel to Solvay a strong demand of this
growing market.
> Mike Wood; Mike Attwell; Bob Ball; Paul Bradley;
Stande Carpenter; José-Manuel de La Hoz;Alastair
Mcneillie; Jim Phillip; Bob Skogley; Jim Vysoky; David
Calvo; David Henry; John Maziuk; Gary Mularski;
Marcie Peters; Rissa Prince.
> SBU SODA ASH
104818
SOLKANE ® 365MFC AS A KEY COMPONENT
FOR SOLVENT APPLICATIONS
A NEW PRODUCT
FOR HIGH END SOLVENT
FORMULATIONS
Industrial cleaning, dry cleaning
and precision cleaning face several challenges
in the coming years. The electronics industry
for example is driving their designs to
smaller and smaller parts with increasingly
complicated geometries and surfaces. Various
solvents and a large variety of combinations
are currently in use. Solvay has launched
a new product onto this market, SOLKANE ®
365mfc, which boasts many advantages. Asia
is a key market, the Japanese market in
particular, as Japanese companies are setting
technology standards in a number
of industries (electronic, optical, automotive,
Dry cleaning). SOLKANE ® 365mfc is already
very successful in dry cleaning applications
in Japan. Three major suppliers of dry
cleaning machinery are now on the market
with equipment specifically designed for
SOLKANE ® 365mfc – one of these machines
now cleans the clothes of the guests of the
Imperial Hotel in Tokio, probably one of the
most prestigious addresses in the country!
The success of the project is largely due to
the dynamism of the Nippon Solvay team.
The list of advantages of SOLKANE ® 365mfc
is long. In dry cleaning for example it ensures
fast cleaning cycles at low temperatures
(saving energy) while delivering wrinkle free
clothes without any smell and without the
need to use antibacterial additives. The aim
is to sell 1 000 tonnes of this product for this
application in the mid term. Overall sales
of SOLKANE ® 365mfc are expected to grow
to 9 000 - 10 000 tonnes.
> Christoph Meurer; Yoichi Ebe; Ulrich Klinner; Terumi
Koike; Michael Marhold; Wilfried Moritz; Masaki
Shimada; Norman Solheid; Alexis Thoelen.
> SBU FLUOR
New business
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
25

Dossier
105013
26
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
HIGH QUALITY PLASTER FOR EXTERIOR WALL COVERING
A WALL PLASTER THAT PROUDLY
DISPLAYS ITS COLOURS
Solvay AFM develops new products for new
markets. One of these is an innovative PCC
(precipitated calcium carbonate) which comes in the
form of a mineral additive for use in indoor or
outdoor wall plasters. The new Solvay product,
known as ARW 100, is earmarked for plaster for
outdoor use. Its use in wall plasters improves
their impermeability while letting the wall breathe.
The resistance to abrasion and the adhesiveness to
the support are also increased. Application is made
easier, guaranteeing aesthetic results. Finally, the
preparation already contains the pigment and
therefore makes it possible to do without the usual
coat of paint which is costly in raw materials,
in labour and maintenance. The product comes
in a broad spectrum of colours. This new product has
been developed with Italian partners, Macri,
specialized in plaster products. It can look forward to
a promising future, as the biggest Italian
manufacturers of construction products have already
shown an interest. But what about production?
Between 1 000 tonnes and 2 000 tonnes per year
and the action plan already has its sights set on
gaining a foothold on other European markets.
Thanks to these new and innovative product, Solvay
has given all added value to all its customers
downstream of the commercial chain:
• a innovative and profitable application for plasters
producers;
• an alternative for architects to propose an
ecological solution to the final consumer, with a
large choice of colours;
• savings in terms of products, costs and of the time
of the installers, through a higher performance
product;
• a faster and less costly construction of buildings
and houses, through the selection of a precise ink for
the final consumer.
> Thierry Grange; Mike Ball; Sébastien Caspard; Dominique
Debecker; Maik Diederich; Gaetano Francese;Alberto Galasco;
Jean-Paul Guerre; Sandrine Hellinckx; Marc Lacroix; Luc Lebrun;
François Monnet;Alvinio Ravasi; Roberto Rosa; Jean-Paul
Schoebrechts; Nathalie Sibold; Didier Sy.
> SBU AFM
104995
NIDACELL INSIDE: AN OPEN DOOR
TOWARDS NEW OPPORTUNITIES TO PRODUCE
3D STRUCTURES COMPOSITES
THE COMPETITIVENESS
OF “HONEYCOMBS”
N idacellTM is the first procedure to offer the
possibility of both extruding
and assembling honeycombs 3D structures
on a continuous line.
Developed initially for PVC, the Nidacell
technology is now set to be used in the
processing of a very broad range of
thermoplastics ranging from PVC (soft, rigid,
recycled) to the polymers of the most cutting
edge specialties (PPSU, PVDF, TPE…).
It allows industrialists active in the fields
of furniture, aeronautics or the automobile,
to produce light, rigid or supple, insulating,
fire or chemical resistant panels at a
competitive cost and in line with demand.
Solvay intends to exploit the numerous
technical innovations coming out of the
development of this revolutionary procedure
by selling licenses as well as through
the additional sales of polymers, thus paving
the way for new applications and new
markets.
> Philippe-Jacques Leng; Dominique Grandjean;
Marc Gansemans; Claude Dehennau.
> NBD
104704
BUILDING ON PARTNERSHIPS TO MARKET
AND SELL NEW BICAR ® BASED APPLICATIONS
TOWARDS CONSUMERS
SODIUM BICARBONATE:
A SPECIFIC PARTNER
FOR EACH APPLICATION
Our grandmothers were well aware of the
benefits of sodium bicarbonate,
properties that have been somewhat
forgotten today, with the exception of
countries such as Italy or the US. Nevertheless,
we are observing widespread renewed
interest in more “natural”, healthy and safe
products. That is the image that sodium
bicarbonate enjoys in Italy, and over and
beyond its image, bicarbonate is often
positioned as a more natural alternative to
certain components in cosmetics or detergents.
We are therefore anticipating multiple
possibilities for domestic applications
“containing sodium bicarbonate”. However,
our teams do not have all the necessary
competences to quickly develop these new
applications nor to introduce them into
the mass distribution market. An original
approach, whose main aim is to visibly
introduce sodium bicarbonate into a range
of “wellness” products, has therefore been
adopted. Starting with the most promising
applications, one or several partners have
been selected and an adapted cooperation
agreement was defined (patent, brand,
royalties and distribution policy). The first
results are already visible: you can find
B2Clean ® (partnership with ISOPAC) or a
bicarbonate “anti-allergenic” detergent
(partnership with Vandeputte – “Eau
Écarlate ® ”) in your hypermarkets and several
products are also set to hit the shelves
in the near future.
> Nicolas Palangie; Jean-Philippe Pascal; Giordano
Zapelli; Olivier Patat.
> SBU SODA ASH

104683
CAPA FB100 : HOW TO SUPPLY
A NEW PRODUCT INTO A BIG MARKET WHILE
OVERCOMING PRODUCTION LIMITATIONS
EVERYTHING IS REPLACEABLE
Our client manufactures biodegradable
packaging for food products using
polylactic acid and starch. They were looking
for an adhesive sheet to bind together
different materials and fulfil the required
conditions. They initially opted for a Dow
product but were not completely satisfied.
They then contacted Solvay. We proposed
our new CAPA FB 100. A sample was supplied
to the client, whose tests proved to be
conclusive. Several small deliveries allowed
the client to gain experience with the
behaviour of the product. Finally, Solvay
received an order for 15 tonnes. However,
the product was custom-made by Alkor
Draka. Bad luck, this supplier accepted to
produce 10 tonnes but then stopped its
production, which meant that we had to find
a new manufacturer. In February 2006,
Solvay concluded an agreement with
Standridge Color Corp, an American company
that already manufactured the end product
for our client. The transfer of know-how was
carefully controlled to protect Solvay’s
intellectual property. The new partner is
developing a pilot and is meeting the
demands of Solvay and of the client. The
demand is gradually increasing and currently
amounts to 1 000 tonnes per annum. The fact
that the manufacturer is American and
already involved in the process also brings
a whole series of appreciable advantages.
> Jeffrey Neidinger; Stewart Derbyshire; Henri Wautier.
> SBU CAPROLACTONES
104604
ACHIEVE A LEADERSHIP POSITION
AS A GMP MANUFACTURER
OF THERAPEUTIC OLIGONUCLEOTIDES
WINNING THE LEADERSHIP
Girindus is a manufacturer of chemical
and pharmaceutical specialties
and process-developer and has skills in the
production of oligonucleotides, active
compounds being deployed in the treatment
of diseases such as cancer, asthma, AIDS,
allergies, cardio-vascular problems and
in skin applications. The company is present
in Germany and in the United States with
140 employees, including 50 scientists
of doctorate level. These specialists augment
the research skills of Solvay, as Solvay holds
a stake of over 75% in Girindus A.G. The
project consists of developing a process that
avoids wasting time and money during
the synthesis phase of a new product.
A completely new approach has been
developed and registered (protected
by copyright) involving the use of specific
solvents, a complex and reliable activator
for the basic material, the rationalisation
of the reaction process in the synthesis
of the oligonucleotides and simplification
of the purification. A whole range
of improvements have been implemented,
including the use of cheaper raw materials
and the reduction in the consumption of
solvents, to improve the competitive position
on the market. The therapeutic market is
particularly buoyant and Girindus is now
uniquely placed to increase its production
capacity, thus remaining a credible
and competitive supplier.
> Ern Edmonds; Kathy Ackley; Raj Bandaru; Inga Gwose;
Andreas Hohlfeld; Meinolf Lange; Frintz Link; Andreas
Schoenberger.
> SBU MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS
New business
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
27

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
103515
28
SOLVERA ® : NEW PRODUCTS
FOR GREASE PROOF PAPER
AN END TO TOXIC
ACCUMULATION
Fluorochemicals are used to make paper
greaseproof, mainly in the food packaging
industry. In 2000, 3M withdrew from
this international market following the
discovery of a persistent degradation product
that was also bio-accumulative and toxic.
Suddenly, bright new opportunities arose
for newcomers. Using PFPE (perfluoropolyethers),
the chemists at Solvay Solexis designed
a new molecular structure capable of meeting
the following demands :compatibility with
existing paper chemistry and application
methods, the capacity to homogeneously cover
the porous substrate without any pin holes,
a toxicological profile sound enough to fulfil
the demands of the Food and Drug Administration
and proven safety of the degradation products.
All these properties had to be combined
with impermeability to oil and water, in line
with the needs of the market. Three products
were thus developed under the Solvera PT
range. At the same time, the industry needed
new testing methods that would allow them
to quickly evaluate the real resistance
of the paper during the production process.
Solvay Solexis developed these new test
methods and they have since been adopted
by the main players in the sector.
These innovative products give Solvay Solexis
a decisive competitive edge thanks
to its inimitable technological platform
and the high degree of process integration.
The innovations have allowed this type
of paper to escape the vicious cycle
of toxic bio-accumulation. .
> Piero Gavezotti; Fiorenza Daprile; Antonella Di Meo;
Padigala Mahesh; Claudio Tonelli; Tania Trombetta.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
104425
HIGH PURITY BARIUM CARBONATE COATED
WITH TITANIUM DIOXIDE : A NEW APPROACH
TO THE SYNTHESIS OF ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
FOR CAPACITORS
The innovation covers a powder known as
BaCO3 HP FC, which includes a core of high
purity barium carbonate and a shell of titan
dioxide, and also its method of production.
This powder is used as a basic ingredient for
the solid state production of high crystalline
barium titanate. The traditional procedure
involves mixing and grinding of mixtures
of barium carbonate and titanium dioxide
followed by an high temperature calcination.
The new procedure strongly improves
the mixing of the reactants, which
subsequently triggers a better and faster
reaction. With the BaCO3 HP FC, the
electronic industry can manufacture better
performing barium titanate and, in turn,
better ceramic capacitors. This approach
permits a more cost effective production
of high end ceramic capacitors, extending
their market share against other types
of capacitors. Finally, this innovation leads
to an increase in the barium titanate market
and broadens the scope of the barium
carbonate. The Institute of Energetics and
Interphases at the Italian National Research
Council participated in the project in 2004 and
2005. The product will be manufactured
in a specially adapted plant. Production is set
to be launched in 2006 and sales in 2007.
> Rocco Alessio; Maria Teresa Buscaglia;Vincenzo Buscaglia;
Arianna Daquino; Sara Trombella.
> SBU BARIUM-STRONTIUM
104530
MULTIPURPOSE PLANT FOR FLUORINATED
CF3 AND CF2-SPECIALTIES
THE SWISS KNIFE
OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL
INDUSTRY
It is a broadly accepted fact that one in every
three new pharmaceutical or agronomic
projects contains a fluorine atom. Solvay has
earned an envied reputation and leadership
position on the fluorinated specialties market
but it is a cost conscious and competitive
market. To increase cost-effective flexibility
and reduce the financial risk associated with
the construction of dedicated new plant, Solvay
had the idea of designing a multipurpose plant
for fluorinated specialties. This called for the
pooling of a broad spectrum of skills. The plant
was built in Bad Wimpfen (Germany),
a wine-growing region that imposes strict
environmental protection rules. All these
regulations were respected and the relationship
with the plant’s neighbours and the local
authorities is constantly nurtured. Built in 2002
the plant sets out to make a contribution
of around MEUR 3.5 to the sales of the SBU
now in 2006. This figure should reach MEUR 20
in 2010 if we take into account the projects
currently under development. Several
compounds have already been delivered from
this multi-purpose installation: intermediate
fluorinated products for Pfizer, Eli Lilly,
Sanofi-Adventis, Esteve, Cenral Glass, Lonza,
Dow and others and more recently, a new
herbicide was developed in cooperation with
Dow Agro.
> Ern Edmonds; Max Braun; Francine Delplanque;
Johannes Eicher; Ralf Herkelmann; Matthias Lipp.
> SBU MOLECULAR SOLUTIONS
New business

Customer
oriented projects
Projects made possible by
close collaboration
\ INNOVATION AT CARL ZEISS \ Page 30
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 32
\ The power of IT at the service of scientific documentation
\ Keeping our ears open for faults \ The satellite at the service of medicine
\ If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it! \ Speed makes all the difference \ When the dietician
supports the family physician \ Plastics at the service of medicine \ Buy Solvay!
\ A multidimensional matrix to master Cheops \ Viscosity upon customers request
\ The idea is in the bag \ A quadruple winner \ Scientific memory on the Intranet
\ An Asian hub to accelerate deliveries of our products \ High quality in high demand
\ Improving flue gas desulphurization in the glass industry
\ A revolution in automobile construction
\ The client asks, Solvay innovates and responds \ Learning from each new development
\ Clean and sparkling!
> Contact person and team
> Entity submitting the project
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
29
© Anthony Harvie / Getty Images

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
30
Under its slogan “We make it visible”, Carl Zeiss, known
worldwide for its high quality optical equipment, brings
into sharp focus its corporate objective of making
everything that exists visible to the human eye.
Seeing everything, even the naturally invisible?
An earth-shuddering ambition.
Today Carl Zeiss leads the world in precision optics
and high tech instrumentation. But it has been a
struggle getting there. Created in Jena in 1846 by
Carl Zeiss, who was joined in turn by physicist Ernst
Abbe and chemist Otto Schott, the company started manufacturing
microscopes. It grew rapidly and gained remarkable
fame. But the Second World War dealt it a hard blow. First its
Dresden plant was badly bombed, then the company was cut
in two with the creation of the two Germanies. In the East,
the Zeiss and Schott factories became the state-owned “VEB
Carl Zeiss Iena”. In the West, where 126 scientists were transferred
to the American occupation zone, the “Optische Werke
Oberkochen” continued its activities. Each lived its own life
for 40 years. But with the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification
of the two Germanies the unimaginable happened: the
separated couple remarried again. The reunification of the two
companies, in fact a forced repurchase of the eastern company
by the western company, required an integration effort
and financial commitment which brought the latter to the verge
of bankruptcy. A few years on, however, Carl Zeiss has
recovered its former lustre. Better than that: with over
Optics focused on the future: mirror system
for the sample of an EUV (Extreme
Ultra Violet) exposure system for upcoming
chip generations.
Innovation
a driver for growth
10 000 employees worldwide and sales topping EUR 2.2 billion,
it is again a world leader in its sector. But this success did not
come about just like that.
Innovation and customer focus
In the late 1990’s, close to bankruptcy and fighting for its corporate
survival, Carl Zeiss undertook a fundamental reorganization.
Management was radically overhauled and three new board
members were appointed. Their first action was to offer a vision,
an enterprise mission in which innovation took pride of place.
“We continue to challenge the limits of man’s imagination”, this
vision states. “We will be regarded as the most innovative company
in our field of business”. Innovation and technical excellence
are one of seven core values at the heart of Carl Zeiss’s mission.
And these are more than fine-sounding words. 10% of company
revenues are earmarked for research and development. True,
this may be less than in some other industry sectors. “But even
so it is considerably more than our competitors invest”, Group
Quality Officer Thomas A. Louis tells us. “Innovation has always
been the bedrock of Carl Zeiss's growth from day one. We are

Seeing everything even the naturally invisible:
optimum vision for plastic and reconstructive
surgery is provided by the OPMI Vario surgical
microscope by Carl Zeiss.
convinced it will remain the driver of our success.”
For Carl Zeiss carefully listening to its customer’s
needs and expectations is a key success factor. This
proactive approach may go as far as actually accompanying
on the spot a medical eye procedure to fully
understand why the accuracy and high definition of
colours are so important for a specific lens in the
medical equipments used during operation. Carl
Zeiss publishes its own customer magazine,
“Innovation”. Each issue contains 60 fascinating
pages of texts, photos and illustrations. The subjects go further
than seeking to sell our products. “We’ve published a whole series
of articles on technologies that could serve to forewarn us of seismic
movements. We’ve included remarkable articles, for example, on
the fabulous progress that optics is making possible in eye and brain
surgery. Our message is clear: innovation lies at the heart of progress
for humanity.” At Carl Zeiss innovation is a state of mind, with
an objective that goes beyond short-term profitability. It is part
of the search for well-being in general. “We want to avoid falling
into the trap of purely profit-motivated creativity”, Thomas A.
Louis says approvingly.
Celebrating innovation
Every year, Carl Zeiss brings together 250 or so employees for
three days in a European capital to celebrate their creativity initiatives.
Innovation is broadly defined to include products, technologies,
management approaches and new commercial ideas.
Hundreds of proposals are submitted through the new business
generation process, additional ones come up through the famous
electronic “ideas box” which the company has recently developed.
“This Internet based form which allows any Group employee
to propose an idea that he or she finds creative and value-creating
– both key criteria! Several individual are working full-time to
manage the innovation pipeline and making sure every idea is
© Digital Vision/John Cumming
Customer oriented projects
Let’s encourage
communication
about failures!
At Carl Zeiss they not only celebrate
successes, but also award sharing
the essence of failures. The company
even has a dedicated ‘most successful
failures’ trophy. These are projects that
seemed to have everything going
for them, but at a certain point in their
development ran up against an
unexpected and irremovable obstacle.
By celebrating project teams who
successfully shared their learnings from
failures and giving them a certain
visibility, the company hopes to avoid
repeating the same mistake
a few years on. In one example,
a new technology did not make it
to the market and failed to generate
the expected added value. But it did
allow the company and its customer
to gain precious know-how.
The company and its partner also
came closer together. Success is not
always where you expect it most.
correctly evaluated and followed up. We really do try to prevent a
good idea being snuffed out through routine processing, simply
because it sounds crazy or because it has never been done before.”
Less than a dozen projects received funding in the first year of
the innovation award. Last year, the number ran significantly
higher. In each of the six innovation award categories two or
three finalists are presented. Many of the award-winning projects
are carried through to the project stage. In fact, the point
in the development process at which the award is given illustrates
the company’s willingness and ability to take calculated
risk. Thomas A. Louis: “Rewarding too early is not being serious.
Rewarding too late is a sign of timidity. We want to reward
ideas before we are really certain that they will make it. To share
in its employees’ efforts, the company also needs to share the risk.
Creativity, ingenuity, commitment and courage are needed to
foster a culture in which good ideas are relentlessly turned into
valuable new products and services.”•
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
31

Dossier
32
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
104409 104510
E-JOURNALS @ YOUR DESK
THE POWER OF IT
AT THE SERVICE OF SCIENTIFIC
DOCUMENTATION
The electronic journals system that
has been set up between 2001 and 2003
replaces the old system that consisted
of the manual circulation of paper copies
of scientific articles required to feed the
pharmaceutical research work.
It combines the integrated content search
platform SWOC (SwetsWise Online Content),
which compiles 19 000 written press titles
and over 500 electronic journals, with the F17
Autodoc distribution system, which channels
the information required to the electronic
desk of the clients, at the latest 24 hours
after the request is entered.
The system gives Solvay Pharmaceuticals
a unique, high-performance, integrated
electronic tool for all the scientific journals
and articles, covering a very broad spectrum.
Not only is the system of a high-quality,
it is also fast and reasonably priced.
It is implemented in Weesp (Netherlands)
and Hanover (Germany), and already
has extensions in Marietta (US) and
Suresnes (France) and soon at Fournier
Pharma (France).
> Natalie Heckemueller; Maria Hennig;
Eric Mecking.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
SUBSTITUTION OF HYDROSTATIC PROOF
OF PRESSURE EQUIPMENT BY A PNEUMATICAL
TEST FOLLOWED BY ACOUSTIC EMISSION
KEEPING OUR EARS
OPEN FOR FAULTS
The periodic requalification of “Pressure
Equipment” calls at the very least for an
underwater hydraulic test preceded by an
internal and external visual examination
of the surface.
This method is laborious and costly,
especially in the case of pressure equipment:
• containing products that are corrosive
when in contact with water;
• that are insulated, refrigerated or flame
retardant (need to withdraw the insulation in
order to have access to the external surface).
In partnership with other industrialists,
the CC ECM Materials and Corrosion have
developed a less intrusive method, based
on acoustic emission, and has had it certified
by certain authorities as being equivalent
to hydraulic testing.
Acoustic emission consists of analyzing,
via captors placed on the structure, the elastic
waves spontaneously generated by
a material when it undergoes deformation,
degradation or damage. It is then possible
to locate in real time the precise position
of the fault, even if the latter is situated
in an inaccessible area. The result: increased
security, significant savings in maintenance
costs and a reduction in downtime, which
amount to thousands tonnes of production.
> Étienne Gravy; Michel Beucler; Pascal Labeeuw.
> CC ECM MATERIALS & CORROSION
Life Transition
104598
WORKING TO BUILD A COHESIVE
CYSTIC FIBROSIS GROUP IN SASKATCHEWAN
THE SATELLITE
AT THE SERVICE OF MEDICINE
The two biggest clinics in Saskatchewan
(Canada) treating fibroses were suffering
from a chronic lack of communication.
Similarly, at internal level, that is, within one
and the same establishment, there was
no communication or coherence between
the adult and paediatric departments.
To remedy this problem, a high-level training
programme, earmarked for families whose
members suffered from fibrosis,
was launched in the towns of Regina and
Saskatoon. The originality of the project lies
in the use of the Telehealth satellite
as a support for the conferences organised
for the families and for the healthcare
professionals. At the end of these
conferences, which covered the main clinics
of the province, the reputation of Solvay
Pharmaceuticals and its medicine Creon ® had
been given quite a boost. The partnership
between Solvay Pharmaceuticals
and the clinics treating the fibroses continues
and Solvay Pharmaceuticals has clearly
become to be regarded among healthcare
professionals as a leader in the provision
of educational support to these groups
of patients.
> Dale Upton; Tamara Klassen.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR

104408
PRODUCING YET PURER “E-GRADE”
HYDROFLUORIC ACID THROUGH ENHANCED
ANALYTICAL CAPABILITIES
IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT,
YOU CAN’T IMPROVE IT!
Hydrofluoric acid (HF), a high purity grade
for the electronics produced in Alorton
(USA), was suitable for its applications,
meanwhile due to a lack of sufficiently
precise analytical methods, it was impossible
to characterise it and, above all, to make
further progress. No sooner said than done,
as thanks to this project the experience
of trace analysis acquired in high purity
hydrogen peroxide has been transferred
to HF. The innovation consisted, first of all,
of creating an adapted analytical environment
(“clean room” concept), and installing
the necessary devices with the required
detection power. The teams then
focused their attention on minimising the
preparation of the sample, which was
reduced to a simple dilution: under half an hour
in all. The method has now proven its
robustness and has become the reference for
the semi-conductor industry. It has effectively
made it possible to pinpoint and improve
the quality of our products and to increase
our sales and our market shares on the high
purity market.
> Koen Vermeiren; Doug Boyer;
Jean-Marie Collard.
> CC ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES
105025
PATENT ALERTING SYSTEM
SPEED MAKES
ALL THE DIFFERENCE
Patent Patent
Building on the strengths of the Tech Watch
system, the alert service makes it possible
to draw the attention of a target scientific
community to the existence of certain patents
as soon as they are published, proactively
and at a low cost. For this service, the speed
of communication takes priority over
the exhaustiveness of the monitoring coverage.
In fact, when the patents are published, they
are generally only available in their original
submission language. It can take up to three
months before an English summary of a
sufficient quality becomes available, either
in the commercial databases, or on the sites
of the patent offices. The immediate detection
of a patent as soon as it is published calls, thus,
for a search to be carried out on the basis
of the language in which it is published and/or
on the basis of the minimum classification
granted by the patent offices. This limitation
inevitably diminishes the exhaustiveness of the
monitoring coverage. That is why the alert
service is reserved in practice to the surveillance
of the titles of third parties that could
potentially pose an obstacle to the Solvay
activities in Europe and in the US, and to those
cases in which it is important to be quickly
and proactively informed. Each member
of the target community is alerted directly
and exclusively by electronic mail. They are
therefore in a position to react: make
comments, warn a colleague, etc. The alert
service takes place in various stages:
surveillance of databases specialising in patents
by a robot, extraction of the data corresponding
to the selection criteria, extraction of patents
from free access Internet sites, examination
of the information relevance by specialists,
and if of interest, dispatch of an e-mail alert
to the researchers.
> Thierry Depireux; Antoine Amory; Philippe Jacques;
Christian Thiriaux; Aalt Vandekuilen.
> CC IAM
Customer oriented projects
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
33

Dossier
104917
34
DANCE (DICETEL ® AND NUTRITION
COMBINATION EVENT)
WHEN THE DIETICIAN
SUPPORTS THE FAMILY
PHYSICIAN
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
The treatment of patients suffering from
irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is often
a source of frustration for the family
physician. Because of the very nature
of the problem, patients are reluctant to discuss
their physical or psychological problems
and the chances of being able to control the
symptoms over a long period are limited.
In practice, the patients return to consult their
doctor because they find that the effects
of the Dicetel ® treatment are incomplete or too
slow. Many get impatient, do not assiduously
follow the prescriptions and interrupt the
treatment. The idea is to combine treatment
with Dicetel ® with an appropriate diet,
defined by qualified nutritionists.
Dicetel ® is now prescribed for three months and
at the same time the patients receive a voucher
for a visit to the dietician, reimbursed
by Solvay Pharmaceuticals. This system, which
was set up in 2005, had a positive outcome
with an increase in sales of Dicetel ®
and an improvement in relations between
the physicians and the patients.
> Carolyn Bush.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
103564
TOWARDS SAFER MEDICAL
AND BIOLOGICAL PACKAGING
PLASTICS AT THE SERVICE
OF MEDICINE
Adetailed study on the content
of leachable compounds in the plastics
materials has been carried out in order to:
• reinforce their acceptance and therefore
strengthen our market position;
• look into the possibility of their use in cell
culture, a new growing market.
A comprehensive analysis strategy has been
developed, taking into account not only the
characteristics of the containers and contents
but also all the possible crossed
contaminations. This approach combines,
on the one hand, available analytical
techniques, some of which are being used up
to their detection limits, and, on the other it
nurtures a permanent dialogue with internal
clients, in all the study phases.
This methodology may be widely extended,
mainly to the plastic materials used in
medical and food applications.
> Serge Eeckhoudt; Lodewick Berkenbosch;
Wim Devos; Patrizia Dorazio; Robert Elcik;
Peter Karsten; Ingrid Luyten; Jean Morel;
Pascal Pennetreau; Juan Villanueva.
> CC ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES
101364
THE BUY SOLVAY PROJECT LEVERAGE EXISTING
GROUP NETWORKS TO GROW THE BUSINESS
BUY SOLVAY!
The Group is changing from one day to the
next, making it difficult for the mere mortals
at Solvay to keep track of its entire products
portfolio.
This issue applies not only to the Group’s
employees, but also to its clients and suppliers.
And in view of the cost of acquiring
a new client, it quickly becomes clear that
reinforcing existing commercial contacts
is a better promise of new sales.
To do so, the International Purchasing Department
(DIA) has set up a project that exploits our
existing networks by putting the focus on product
knowledge and communication.
This campaign targets:
• the Group’s employees, as they are in touch
with certain prescribers of our products,
physicians for example;
• the Solvay buyers, whether they need to order
products for construction (for example, PVDF
for the chemical reactors in Rosignano/Italy)
or for production (for example sodium silicate
to manufacture percarbonate on the same site);
• the buyers of our clients and of our suppliers,
in order to consolidate our privileged links
(for example Pipelife tubes installed
by Gaz de France).
This initiative is unprecedented in the industry. It
was launched in 2003 for a four year period. And
the results generated are already very promising
(EUR 7, 5 million per year today with an estimated
potential of EUR 18 million per year).
> Jean-François Dehem; Patrick Balletto;
Michel Bokobza; Oscar Corti; Chantal De Brabanter;
Patrick Lacroix; Jean-Pierre Meriaux; Freddy Smit.
> CC DIA

MATRIX RELOADED...
WITH THE SUPPORT OF BILL
A MULTIDIMENSIONAL
MATRIX TO MASTER CHEOPS
Imagine a huge matrix, multidimensional
of course, and that contains billions
of figures: the Group’s entire financial
memory and forecasts.
Every day, managers and controllers analyse
the trends and use them to back up their
operational or strategic decisions. With
a wealth of information on 260 companies,
the matrix contains no fewer than 140 GB
of data, or 22 million entries, accessible
by around 600 users. But its supporting systems
were running out of steam.
And the demands to make it better, faster
and cheaper, were continuously increasing.
That is why it became necessary to redefine
the matrix. First of all, by setting up new
processes, aimed in particular at shortening
the publication times of the annual accounts
and also by migrating the matrix into a SQL
database accessible via the Microsoft tools,
in the best interests of all users. And this is
where Bill comes into it! Thanks to an
original partnership between Solvay
(SIS and DCFi) and Microsoft, the transfer
between the former database and the new
one went smoothly and the cost was kept
down. Long live the “matrix”, also known as,
yes you’ve guessed it, Cheops.
> Stéphane Collignon; Luc Barbeaux;
Harold de Laveleye; Michel Joannes.
> DCFi-SIS
102068
104275 SOLVIN, THE PARTNER IN VINYLS
FOR AUTOMOTIVE MASTIC MANUFACTURERS
VISCOSITY UPON
CUSTOMERS REQUEST
Car makers are putting increasing pressure
on parts manufacturers to obtain high
tech products. For example, the PVC mastics
that they use are so specific, in particular
in terms of viscosity, that the producers are
finding it difficult to come up with
raw materials that are appropriate for
their products. Few qualities are available.
In partnership with Henkel Surface
Technologies, a car parts manufacturer for
the sector SolVin developed, back in 2001,
a new PVC resin for this market. The
collaboration with this client was intense
and a large quantity of information was
exchanged relating to the specifications,
the analytical methods and the results.
What’s more: SolVin supplied Henkel with
several series of samples that the latter was
able to evaluate in depth. The joint research
led to industrial trials in 2003.
Since then, SolVin has integrated the new
resin into its global offer and supplies
different mastic manufacturers generating,
at the end of the day, an increase in this
business. The new resin quality is being
promoted among clients of other segments
that could benefit from the progress it brings
for applications that call for specific
viscosities. Furthermore, it paves the way for
further fruitful cooperation with Henkel
and already gives an additional boost to the
high-tech and privileged partner image
enjoyed by SolVin.
> Séverine Rochard; Hervé Boisson;
Olivier Brulard; Jean-Pierre Steinmetz.
> SBU VINYLS
© PSA
Customer oriented projects
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
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Dossier
102069
36
PVC PACKING PVC, NO MORE WASTE ISSUE,
EASIER FOR THE CUSTOMER
THE IDEA IS IN THE BAG
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
It all started off with a simple idea: why not
pack PVC in PVC rather than in polyethylene
(PE) bags? The idea gradually grew into an
ambition: to produce a quality that is at least
equivalent to that of PE, sufficiently resistant to
be used in the FFS (Form Fill and Seal) bagging
units while at the same time smartening the
appearance of the transport pallets. To do so,
three obstacles had to be overcome:
• it was necessary to find an industrial partner
with experience in the production
and marketing of plastic bags;
• a product had to be developed to meet
the required technical specifications;
• the PVC bags had to be tested in extreme
climatic conditions.
In partnership with the Italian company Eurosak,
a first formula was developed. It immediately
revealed the qualities of the product: mechanical
resistance, resistance to friction during transport,
good ageing properties and an attractive cost.
Only the extreme cold posed a problem. Then,
within the framework of a research programme,
each of these characteristics was evaluated
and the recipe improved. New tests conducted
in Italy confirmed the high resistance
of the improved formula in a broad range
of temperatures. The project promoters
are therefore confident about its long-term
development, even if a few modifications (made
necessary by everyday use) still need to be
applied. We should add that the PVC bags make
a significant contribution to the realisation
of the Vinyls 2010 recycling objectives.
> Carmelo Ricci; Gérard Bozzi; Roland Keusch;
Stéphane Metzler; Harald Stockmann.
> SBU VINYLS
104777
AN INTERACTIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP
FOR FAMILY PHYSICIANS DESIGNED TO TEACH
INTRA-ARTICULAR INJECTIONS
A QUADRUPLE WINNER
The idea is to hold a one-day interactive
session to teach family physicians how
to correctly perform intra-articular injections.
As this is not part of their general training,
the general physicians send their patients
to be treated by specialists.
The training sessions, run by a specialist,
would begin with a theoretical course
on osteoarthritis and the various available
treatment options, including Pennsaid.
Then, practical injection work on models
would be performed by the doctors
themselves. This kind of training would
be a winning formula in four respects:
• the status of the family doctor would be
enhanced thanks to an additional know-how
that would ultimately benefit his patients;
• the patient is given immediate treatment
and develops an additional relationship
with his family doctor;
• the healthcare system is unburdened
of relatively minor interventions;
• Solvay Pharmaceuticals has, along
with the family doctors, more opportunities
to prescribe Pennsaid, the treatment
of choice for these pathologies.
> Kimberley Colbert.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR

104125
TECH WATCH - ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY
MONITORING TOOL
SCIENTIFIC MEMORY
ON THE INTRANET
There is no end to technical, scientific and
regulatory information. To such a point
that it is difficult to filter and find what
is really important for a particular field
of activities. And yet, to give a direction
to research, it is essential that we do not
“reinvent the wheel”. To simplify the
overview and make life easier for the Group’s
scientists, Tech Watch posts patent
summaries, a string of scientific publications
as well as legislation that are of interest
for the Group, all of this in English.
This pertinent information is divided into
different categories in a central database,
accessible via the Solia Intranet. Researchers
can access it wherever they are and can
search the base either directly or with the
help of specialists. They can also set up alerts
related to their specific interests and will be
alerted by e-mail of any new information
in their field. A monthly compilation can also
be printed out from the Intranet site.
If a publication is of interest to the researchers,
they can order it on-line (scientific literature)
or access it directly (patents, legislation).
The system will directly allocate them any
associated costs. Today, the database
contains around 680 000 entries, which are
available to users at a low cost and faster
than ever before.
> Antoine Amory; Luc Botte; Catherine Charlot;
Nathalie Decuyper; Alain Delroeux; Thierry
Depireux; Pierre Drijvers; Valérie Dufaye; Sylvie
Duret; Annie Fontaine; Marc Houtekie; Philippe
Jacques; Viviane Lambert; Christian Thiriaux;
Isabelle Thirionet; Martine Vaneenoo; Guy Verdicq.
> CC IAM
105226
SEA REGIONAL HUB-WAREHOUSE
AN ASIAN HUB
TO ACCELERATE DELIVERIES
OF OUR PRODUCTS
Deliveries of the Solvay Solexis products
being exported from Italy to Thailand
or Vietnam were taking too long: 35 days
for sea transport.
It was difficult in these circumstances to gain
the loyalty of clients when competitors
producing in Asia could deliver from their
local stock. For Solvay, air transport, which
is a faster option, or the setting up of a local
stock were too expensive to consider. Today
however, thanks to the use of a central
warehouse for South East Asia (SEA) based
in Singapore, these delivery times have been
reduced to less than 10 days.
This drastic reduction in delivery times was
made possible by an effective cooperation
between the Group’s companies in Thailand
and in Singapore. Solvay Thailand is
responsible for the customer care and
the technical support and submits the orders
of Thai and Vietnamese clients to Solvay
Singapore, which, in turn, takes care
of the delivery and invoicing. This chain
of responsibilities is based on an agency
agreement contract established between
Solvay Singapore and Solvay Thailand.
This new approach has already made it
possible to retain an important client
and to increase the competitiveness of Solvay
Solexis in South East Asia.
> Mangkonkarn Boonchana; Troy Peh.
> BSC ASIA – PACIFIC
Customer oriented projects
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
37

Dossier
103499
38
SIFREN 46: A NEW ENABLING MOLECULE
FOR THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY
HIGH QUALITY
IN HIGH DEMAND
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
The semi-conductor market was calling out
for a gas for the extra-fine and precise
etching of the plasmas present in particular
in memories. However, any product
developed had to meet stringent
environmental requirements. Hence the idea
of gaining a foothold on this market with
Sifren, a gas obtained from our Fluorine gas
technology. This is the best solution to meet
the critical demands of plasma etching.
Furthermore, it is an ecological compound
that has a short lifetime in the atmosphere,
a negligible global warming potential and
which is inert with regard to the
stratospheric ozone layer. The difference
in comparison with other gases is, in this
respect, decisive. Sifren has a unique
personality thanks to the ratio between
carbon atoms and fluorine, which gives it the
crucial capacity for optimal etching conduct
while at the same time forming a polymer
protective layer. The photoresistance
efficiency and selectivity is also very high.
The growing demand for Sifren 46,
particularly on the Asian market, will be
satisfied by the doubling of its production
capacity between now and 2010.
> Vito Tortelli; Emanuela Antenucci; Diego Gazzale;
Francesco Morandi; Marcello Riva; Pierluigi Seri.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
104682
PARTNERSHIP WITH CUSTOMER, TO DEVELOP
OPTIMIZED FLUE GAS CLEANING AND RESIDUES
TREATMENT FOR GLASS INDUSTRY
IMPROVING FLUE GAS
DESULPHURIZATION
IN THE GLASS INDUSTRY
The regulations in the field of the cleaning
of gaseous effluents in the glass industry
are still relatively lax. But this situation
is changing and the gas desulphurization
in becoming major concern for this industry.
In view of the announced stricter standards,
the NEUTREC ® team initiated collaboration
with a reputed glass manufacturer.
Combining from the start, the knowledge
of the glass producer specificities, our
competencies in gas cleaning and the
possibilities Solvay products offer, should
allow the development of an original and
fully optimized desulphurization solution.
In line with the philosophy of previous
NEUTREC ® developments, the solution should
also include the treatment of the depuration
residues. Essentially technical, the project
was launched in February 2006 and it should
be possible to draw the first conclusions
at the end of the year.
A good positioning in this potential market
of industrial gas desulphurization ought to
lead to a significant growth of the NEUTREC ®
present applications.
> Michel Decuyper; Perluigi Cassagli;
Giuseppe Crippa; David Petitjean.
> SBU SODA ASH

105141
TPO SUBSTRATES FOR PAINT-FILM COATING IN
THICK-SHEET THERMOFORMED BUMPER FASCIAS
A REVOLUTION
IN AUTOMOBILE
CONSTRUCTION
This innovation got off the ground with
a challenge set by General Motors
to its supplier community. The carmaker had
the intention of replacing its painting
technologies by opting for a paint-film
coating of the thermoformed accessories
of its models (panels, running boards and even
bumpers). This on the condition that no
concessions were made in terms of the
appearance of the vehicles and that there was
a certainty that the environmental ambitions
were respected. The SBU Specialty Polymers
took up the challenge and developed
a thermoplastic polyolefin capable of meeting
the strict demands for rigidity, stability,
resistance to harsh climatic conditions as well
as the aesthetic demand for a sufficiently
regular surface (after extrusion, lamination
and thermoforming) so as not to reduce the
brilliance and clarity of the end product.
To achieve this, the team engaged the services
of a consultant specialising in thermoforming
and joined forces with four partners: Meridian,
Profile Plastics, Soliant and Southtech Plastics.
The outcome is a success: the product was
granted the classification “A”, the best for dry
colour films and the development of other
applications is underway. The SBU, which has
seen a leap in its profit margin, has thus
positioned itself as a first choice supplier,
an exclusive source of supply for GM who,
thanks to this product, was able to respect
its development program.
> Eric Short; Craig Abernethy; Bruce Denison;
Chris Doan; Charlie Gonzalez; Andy Johnston;
Greg Smith; Kip Swain.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
105193
DEVELOP A PCC WITH ENFORCED RHEOLOGY
CONTROL AT LOW AND HIGH SHEAR RATES
IN AUTOMOTIVE PLASTISOL FORMULATIONS
(UNDER BODY COATINGS)
THE CLIENT ASKS, SOLVAY
INNOVATES AND RESPONDS
It all started back in 2002 when one of our
American clients asked us whether it was
possible to come up with a PCC (precipitated
calcium carbonate) with greater thixotropic
behaviour for its PVC plastisols (capacity
of being very liquid under pressure for the
application and to congeal on the surface so
as not to “drip”). The client provided us with
information about the competitive products
(benchmarks): the Solvay portfolio did not
contain a satisfactory product. The SBU AFM
therefore developed a new family of products
tested in the laboratory. This family is based
on an innovative use of coating technology
and represents a significant progress in
thixotropic control. Furthermore, these
products and the related technologies are the
subject of a patent application. Our client was
able to confirm the remarkable properties
of these PCC for its application and the final
candidate was selected and validated.
A detailed study proved that an investment in
a pilot production line with a capacity of 1 000
tonnes/year would pay for itself. This line has
already entered production. The construction
of a production line at industrial scale is
currently being studied. It is expected to be up
and running in 2007. The SBU AFM hopes to
launch sales in 2006 and these sales should
reach levels of over 4000 tonnes/year
in 2007-2008.
> Mark-Magnus Schulz; Mike Ball; Lucile Branche;
Sébastien Caspard; Karine Cavalier; Dominique Debecker;
Maik Diederich; Wolfgang Dilla; Marie-Laure Dubois;
Gaetano Francese; Jean-Paul Guerre; Christophe Guiton;
Christophe Lemasson; Stéphane Lepercq; François Monnet;
Cédric Raboteau; Rasik Raythatha; Roberto Rosa;
Jean-Paul Schoebrechts; Didier Sy.
> SBU AFM
Customer oriented projects
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
39

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
104698
40
CAPA 2403D6 FOR DUPONT
PERFORMANCE ELASTOMERS
LEARNING FROM EACH
NEW DEVELOPMENT
The product demanded by this client
implied new specifications for the SBU
Caprolactones. The product demanded is a
polyol (polyhydric alcohol) in a granulated
form which was indispensable for the client
for a technology that it had itself patented.
At the time the project was being put
together, the client had entered into a joint
venture with a partner who was a
competitor of the Solvay SBU Caprolactones.
This partner was refusing to supply
the product in question to the client, which
is why the client turned to Solvay. As the
product is earmarked for use in food
applications, stringent rules had to be
respected. The laboratory put in a lot of hard
work to provide the American authorities
(Food and Drug Administration) and the
European authorities with all the required
information. The team worked overtime
and gained invaluable experience in the course
of this administrative process. The first
orders started to come in back in 2002. While
awaiting the go-ahead from the authorities,
the time was put to good use by developing
the production process with an external
partner, a company that was subsequently
bought by Solvay Solexis. An effort was also
made to gradually improve the packaging.
We therefore succeeded in producing a new
physical and chemical variant of the polyol
CAPA. We exceeded the 100 tonnes mark
in 2005 and have set our sights on
150 tonnes in 2007.
> Jeffrey Neidinger; Graham Carr; Charles Lynch;
Steve Woods.
> SBU CAPROLACTONES
105253
DEVELOPMENT OF A EURECO ® GRADE
FOR A BREAKTHROUGH IN AUTOMATIC DISHWASHING
LAUNCHED BY RECKITT BENCKISER (QUANTUM ® )
CLEAN AND SPARKLING!
Reckitt Benckiser, the world-wide leader
in automatic dishwasher detergents,
is continually searching for new formulations to
offer the consumer a more effective and more
ecological range of detergents. This time their
focus was on the development and launch
of a revolutionary new generation of automatic
dishwash tablets containing the Solvay peracid
P.A.P. (tradename EURECO ® ) as the active
bleaching ingredient. The SBU Detergent had
to race against the clock, as they only had eight
months to come up with a new EURECO ®
formulation for this new dishwash product.
The SBU Detergent had two major targets in this
project. The first aim was to develop a grinding
technology in order to satisfy the customer
request for a very fine powdered EURECO ®
grade. The second target was more difficult, as
one formulation component had to be replaced
with other additives that would be compatible
with the peracid and acceptable for the
consumer under existing and pending European
Union legislation. A reformulated grade
of EURECO ® was successfully developed which
was accepted by Reckitt Benckiser, as its key
stain removal agent offering a new level of
cleaning performance in Quantum ® . The new
dishwasher product was launched in the United
Kingdom in October 2005 under the
Finish/Calgonit Quantum ® Powerball brand.
This Quantum ® product represents the first use
of Eureco ® in a consumer application, launched
with the global market leader for automatic
dish-washing. This project has resulted in the
development of a new generation of EURECO ®
granules, offering superior dissolution
characteristics, which will pave the way
for other uses for EURECO ® .
> Elena Negri; Ugo Bianchi; Roberto Garaffa; Alain
Jeanmart; Umberto Leone; Piera Verrocchio.
> SBU DETERGENT
Customer oriented projects

© Mike Powell / Getty Images
Performance
improvement
In terms of existing products,
services, solutions and processes
\ INNOVATION AT TOYOTA \ Page 42
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 44
\ A virtual server for tangible gains \ Produce TAB cheaper and without residues \ The user-friendliness of
paper, the power of electronics \ From theory to practice \ Optimised perception for increased efficiency
\ New technological combinations for the high-debit packaging of the influenza vaccine \ Know-how
keeping the competition at bay \ Purity and performance increased \ Ozone to the membranes rescue
\ On-line sharing and cooperation\ Sustainable control over electric energy costs
\ The right dose straight off \ Greater purity without solvents \ Thinking outside the box leads to
conclusive results! \ A breath of fresh air \ Faster, legally conform and paperless!
\ A mine of good ideas at Okorusu \ One innovation after the other \ That’s just how it is… but does it
have to stay that way… \ A tanker inspection within view of the camera
> Contact person and team
> Entity submitting the project
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
41

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
42
Long unknown outside the company, the Toyota way
is a set of management principles that drive the company
– and its people – to meet challenges and deliver growth.
Toyota is a believer in training and development and
everybody – bar none – is given training in ‘the Toyota
way’, however long it takes.
THE The TOYOT
way
Toyota is a company that has come a long way. In the
early 50s, it was producing about 13 000 cars a year,
almost equalling what General Motors were producing
in a day. But times have changed, and this year, with a
production of more than 600 000 cars in Europe, Toyota is
hard on their heels. In 2003, they overtook Ford to become
one of the top two car manufacturers in the world. Toyota in
Europe has been given free reign to produce the cars that are
required for the European market. Some can still be seen as
‘world cars’ – the Corolla for example, but more and more, Reflect like the tortoise, act like the hare
the development and design for the European market is done
in Europe, by Europeans.
Designed in Europe
A technical R&D centre is situated near Zaventem airport
(Brussels/Belgium), with the aim of producing one totally new car
every two years. The centre – getting bigger and better all the
time (two new buildings have recently been opened at the cost of
EUR 75 million), is already the proud father of the Avensis and
the Yaris. Everything above the platform is developed here – exterior
design, electronics etc - while the chassis and the motor are
developed in Japan. For Colin Hensley, General Manager, R&D
External Affairs & Communication at Toyota Europe, “it is a
remarkable system. A project manager – the chief engineer - is given
the task of bringing a team together, to deliver the new car on time,
and within budget. The specifications of the car have been
pre-defined by the marketing depar tment, and the vision
of the general management. For example, when the Prius
was first being thought about, the inspiration came from
the President at the time (1993). He wanted a car that would use
half as much fuel as any current car that Toyota produced. This was
a major challenge that demanded a radical rethink of how cars were
powered, and as the saying goes ‘you can’t take incremental steps,
and expect exponential results’. So the resulting car, with a hybrid
motor, was a project developed from the bottom upwards – bringing
together parts in a new way, and the whole concept had to be created
in function of the challenge”.
Many hours are spent discussing new projects so that everyone is
on board, and singing to the same hymn sheet. Each decision is
thought about and discussed and all alternatives – and their consequences
- are considered. But once decisions are made, the onus
is to get the work done quickly. There is constant development in
all aspects of car production, so the pro-ject manager can pick and
choose from ideas from a shelf system. These ideas have been
worked on through a system of continuous improvement (kaizen)
– a process whereby engineers have looked at a problem, and
thought of a better way. This too, is part of the Toyota way of
doing things.
Five steps to problem solving
Toyota personnel don’t wait for something to go wrong. Instead
they fix it before it becomes a problem. They have a straightforward
process to improve products, production or safety.
• Identify and clarify the problem
• Look clearly at the current situation – what are the facts?
• How will we measure success? What is the target?
• Ask why – five times? What is the root cause of the problem?
• What counter measures can be considered to solve the problem?
This is followed by a structured plan of execution, checking and
standardisation. This methodology has the added advantage of
being the same throughout the organisation – whether in Japan, the
USA or Europe. On top of that, there is a requirement to be brief

A
and succinct: everything relating to the problem and the solution
should be able to be described on one A3 size of paper!
Respect and egalitarianism is just another example of how Toyota
works. There are no ‘corner’ offices for managers, and everybody
is invited to have their say. Each and every opinion is valued, and
appreciated. Listening – a trait that anybody who has worked with
Japanese will know well – is encouraged and rewarded.
“Toyota is a way of life, and not a 9-to-5 type of company”, Colin
Hensley explains. “The people who work here love their jobs. It is not
unusual to find the engineers working on cars and engines during
the weekend: it is their passion, and their hobby. And Toyota respects
this. ‘Genchi genbutsu’ means ‘go and see for yourself to thoroughly
understand the situation’ – it is clear we trust and respect the talents
of our people to deliver better solutions when confronted with
the reality on the ground.”
Working with suppliers
Toyota believes in success. And they know that they can help
their supplier be successful by working with them, rather than
against them. Again, honest principles apply to the way they
work with their suppliers: trust, understanding and respect.
Absolutely, cost is an issue, but together with the supplier’s
team, all efforts are made to work towards a common goal,
rather than working at cross purposes. Toyota knows that
if a supplier does well, they’ll both do well. And that goes
for customers too – as Toyota constantly leads the reliability
and longevity charts in Europe. No mean feat. No mean
company. •
Performance improvement
The Toyota Principles (*)
14 key points are grouped
under four main principles:
Long term philosophy
1. Base your management decisions on a long-term
philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals.
The right process will produce the right results
2. Create a continuous process flow
to bring problems to the surface.
3. Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.
4. Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like
the tortoise, not the hare)
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems,
to get quality right the first time.
6. Standardised tasks are the foundation for continuous
improvement and employee empowerment.
7. Use visual control so that no problems
are hidden.
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that
serves your people and processes. .
Add value to the Organisation
by developing your people
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work,
live the philosophy and teach it to others.
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow
your company’s philosophies.
11. Respect your extended network of partners
and suppliers by challenging them and helping
them to improve.
Continuously solving root problems drives
organizational learning
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand
the situation (genchi genbutsu).
13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly
considering all options; implement decisions
rapidly (nemawashi).
14. Become a learning organization through
relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous
improvement (kaizen).
(*) Source: “The Toyota way - 14 Management Principles
from the world's greatest manufacturer” - Jeffrey K. Liker
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
43

Dossier
105061
44
VIRTUAL SERVER PROJECT SAVES TIME
AND MONEY FOR INTERNAL CUSTOMERS
AT SOLVAY PHARMACEUTICALS
A VIRTUAL SERVER
FOR TANGIBLE GAINS
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
As a general rule, the development
of a new IT application implies the
acquisition and configuration of new servers
(up to three in fact: development, test,
production) in order to guarantee the total
isolation of the existing application so
as not to threaten its integrity. The
innovation consists of “virtualising” part of
an existing server, that is, isolating one part
and endowing it with all the functions of a
completely autonomous server, for the
applications or development. This operation
has been applied at Marietta (US),
with runaway success. The virtualisation
of servers allows the creation of an IT
environment for a new application within
hours, rather than weeks, for a fraction
of the cost of real servers.
At Marietta alone, 91 virtual servers are
in operation on only 8 real machines, which
amounts to a reduction factor of 11.
The setting up of virtual servers is now in
progress in other Solvay Pharmaceuticals
sites, Weesp (Netherlands), Hanover
(Germany) and for the 3S project.
> Scott Fouche; Ron Criswell; Mike Gerety;
Earl Hartsell; Bruce Mc Millan; Fabian Gonzalez;
Ruben Gabbarrini.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
105043
IMPROVED PROCESS TO TAB
USING “GREEN CHEMISTRY”
PRODUCE TAB CHEAPER
AND WITHOUT RESIDUES
TAB (tert-amylbenzene) is the basic raw
material that goes into the production
of amylantraquinone (AQ), itself an
intermediary material for the production
of Hydrogen Peroxyde (H202). Solvay, the
world-wide leader in the production of TAB,
AQ and H202, produces the TAB and AQ
in its Linne Herten plant in the Netherlands.
The demand for TAB is growing, in fact, it
will double in five years’ time following the
construction of new H202 production units,
but the capacity at Linne Herten is saturated.
The current TAB process suffers from several
weaknesses: the use of hazardous
substances, complexity and a large quantity
of waste. The aim of the Solvay team, with
the help of the KUL university of Louvain,
was to develop a new organic synthesis
of TAB without using nor benzene
(carcinogenic) nor BF3 (highly toxic) but
instead using ordinary raw materials, with
a minimum of waste, a simplified reactor
and more effective catalyst. The results are
excellent: the new process uses green
chemistry and is much more economical.
The innovation is based on a new organic
synthesis method and a “super basic
“catalyser. It will reinforce Solvay’s cost
leadership position with regard to its Chinese
competitors. The installation will be up and
running in September 2006 in Jemeppe
(Belgium). In the meantime, a major contract
for the sale of TAB has already been
concluded with a Japanese company that will
buy 100% of its needs from Solvay during
a five years period.
> Armin Liebens; Cyril Ausloos; Stephenhamer
Bloomfield; Gilles Darago; Paul Deschrijver; Bernard
Douillet; Jean-Pierre Ganhy; Bart Vercruysse.
> SBU H 2 O 2
105132
HELLAS – ELECTRONIC LABORATORY NOTEBOOK
THE USER-FRIENDLINESS
OF PAPER, THE POWER
OF ELECTRONICS
The traditional paper laboratory notebooks
are reaching to their limits: the difficulty
of finding detailed information again,
of rereading it, loss of information as a result
of staff rotation, wasted duplication
of experiments, etc.
The “Chemical Development” departments
in Weesp (Netherlands) have found an ideal
solution, an electronic management system
for chemical experiments in laboratories.
By recording everything electronically in the
same format, HELLAS (Human-friendly
Electronic Laboratory Application System)
pools all the information, all the knowledge
on the projects underway, from the basic
organic data, the analytical data,
the molecular structures, to the experimental
details, thus creating a “chemical memory”,
accessible to all researchers. HELLAS is an
internal development, based on software
designed for the field of chemistry
and that puts the emphasis on user-friendliness,
both for data capture and for the
information search via multiple keys. HELLAS
contributes not only to the quality
and reliability of data, but also to the improved
management of all the projects, with,
for example, the automatic generation of the
experiment numbers, experiment reviews,
project reviews... HELLAS has even brought
about an improvement in multifunctional
teamwork. The setting up of HELLAS has
proved to be easy and fast. Four weeks was
all it took. This system is already attracting
interest from other departments, which have
taken steps in this same direction.
> Marcel Vanaar; Kees Bakker; Niek Buizer;
Dick Doesburg; Jan Hoogendoorn; Hans Troost;
Jacques Vanmelis.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR

104961
OPTIMIZATION OF AGITATION FOR PVC
MICRO-SUSPENSION POLYMERIZATION
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
The optimisation of micro-suspension
polymerisation depends on the quality of
the latex (polymer dispersed in water) whose
mechanical stability and concentration needs
to be increased.
As the agitation of the reactor is critical
for these characteristics, a study was carried
out in several stages:
• theoretical modelling (Computational Fluid
Dynamics) and experimental study on a small
pilot reactor (Jemeppe/Belgium);
• validation of the model and prediction
of behaviour on a full-scale installation;
• industrial extrapolation to Map Ta Phut
(Thailand) and Santo André (Brazil);
• definition of the optimal industrial
operating conditions, taking into account
the constraints of these sites.
This project is characterised by the correct
prediction of the behaviours at industrial
scale through theoretical models developed
on the basis of pilot trials.
Its effective implementation was fast and
the expected gains have been achieved: few
material losses, response times shortened
by 10%, electric consumption reduced by 27%.
> Anne-France Berger; François Biral; Daniel
Borremans; Thierry Cartage; Severine Rochard.
> CC ECM – PROCESS ENGINEERING
101765
COLOUR-IN. IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS
BY MANAGING THE COLOURS!
OPTIMISED PERCEPTION
FOR INCREASED EFFICIENCY
There are thousands of varieties of colours,
yet we only use a few hundred of them.
How can we better manage their use in the
production of compounds? The answer
can be found in Colour-in. This is an
algorithm developed to ensure the
compatibility of the data commonly used
by the spectrocolorimeters and the RGB used
for screens, printers and other IT tools.
It means that all parties involved - from
the laboratory to the production unit,
from the sales teams to the clients – can see
exactly the same colours. The colours shown
are perfectly representative of the actual
colours. Colour-in thus makes it possible to
avoid tentative manipulations in the
preproduction phase. It can be integrated
into different software – including our ERP –
and can be used to draw up documents such
as manufacturing sheets, product catalogues,
specification tables, etc.
It also has other significant advantages:
• optimisation of colour management
in the manufacturing planning;
• a reduction in the costs incurred by
production errors;
• an added value for the client whose colour
selection procedures are simplified;
• possible use in various sectors;
• long-term competitiveness compared
with those who do not have the technology.
The project will be entered into the
Intellectual Property Register of Catalonia
and thus be protected by copyright.
> Xavier Catalan; Jordi Font; Juan Gonzalez;
Marta Periz; Francisco Torres.
> SBU VINYLS
Performance improvement
104638
NEW FILLING AND PACKAGING LINES
FOR INFLUVAC ® SYRINGES IN OLST
NEW TECHNOLOGICAL
COMBINATIONS FOR
THE HIGH-DEBIT PACKAGING
OF THE INFLUENZA VACCINE
Solvay, one of the world-wide leaders
in the production of influenza vaccines has
seen its sales quadruple in the course of the
past 10 years. To keep pace with this growth,
and to be in a position to package new,
conservative-free vaccines, the production
capacity of the Olst site in the Netherlands
has been doubled. The new lines have
introduced new concepts such as the use
of robots for transfers in the sterile areas, with
certain concepts having even been inspired
by the food industry. Solvay is the first
company in the world to use
these technological combinations to fill
and package syringes. In addition to the
increase in packaging capacity, the new lines
also offers:
• an improvement in the quality
of the sterility of the syringes, allowing
the packaging of conservative-free vaccines;
• a reduction in costs;
• greater respect for deadlines.
And, at the end of the day, a better service
and improved comfort for the patients.
> Eggie Lamping; Sieneke Bult-Muntinga;
Freddy De Vogel; Margreet Henstra; Joost Hillebrand;
Gert-Jan Horsthuis; Sonja Jansen;
Arend-Jan Maatkamp; Eddy Meussen; Pythia Segers;
Co Stempher; Herbert Vanderstrate;
Jan-Eric Zandbergen.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
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45

Dossier
102496
46
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
SILANE: A COMPETITIVE ALTERNATIVE TO HIGH-
PRESSURE STEAM CROSSLINKING TECHNOLOGY
KNOW-HOW KEEPING
THE COMPETITION AT BAY
The cable market demands high levels
of productivity yet low energy and
investment costs. This project sets out to
study and produce new families of material
based on composite polymers to be used as
insulator and sheathing for electrical cables
(certain grades of which must resist fire,
without recourse to halogens, nitrogen
or phosphorus). But the main objective was
to achieve performances only made possible
by high-pressure steam drying reticulation
(vulcanization) technology: softness and
flexibility, elastic recover, resistance to fluids
and to temperature.
By studying the new polymer systems and
production technologies using the Sioplassilane
crosslinking technology, these
properties are now available for products
obtained from the classical thermoplastic
extrusion lines, with a string of side benefits :
low cost energy and maintenance, low
investment cost for the extrusion,
productivity multiplied by four, high degree
of flexibility of production and waste
reduction. The project, which got off the
ground in 2004, has already spawned a new
generation of products that are used in a
number of special applications and that are
quickly developing in terms of sales volumes.
For the time being, no other manufacturer
is selling these compounds, as our
technological know-how is the best barrier
to competition and an excellent way to gain
customers’ loyalty.
> Antonello Casale; Caterina Bocchia.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
104040
DYDROGESTERONE NEW PROCESS
PURITY AND PERFORMANCE
INCREASED
Dydrogesterone is produced using
“proketal”, with “retroketal”
as an intermediary product. The new process,
which follows the same sequence,
has introduced additional “retroketal”
crystallisation stages, making it much more
pure. The yield of the last stage, during
which the “retroketal” is transformed
into dydrogesterone, has been substantially
improved. Designed by Solvay
Pharmaceuticals, the new unit, built
in cooperation with Jacobs Engineering,
was started up in two successive phases,
during the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2004.
It offers the following advantages:
• reduction in the costs of the materials
• the pooling on single line of the hygiene
and environmental aspects and compliance
with the GMP regulations.
To sum up, Solvay Pharmaceuticals is very
proud to present this new installation,
internally, but also to external clients, such
as pharmacists.
> Ron Henneman; Fons Jacobs;
Evert-Jan Jansen Schoonhoven.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
104293
CHECKING THE LOW IODINE DIET
OF THE ELECTROLYSIS MEMBRANES
OZONE TO THE
MEMBRANES RESCUE
The Group’s electrolytic plants
are switching from mercury technology
to membrane technology. In some cases,
the brine that is electrolysed contains iodine
as an impurity, which accumulates on the
membranes and affects their efficiency.
This iodine needs to be eliminated in an
intermediary stage. The challenge consisted
of internally developing a method for
analysing the residual iodine, on the line,
as no commercial solution existed. The new
process that has been developed uses ozone
to quantitatively transform the iodine into
iodate, which is in turn analysed by
spectrophotometer: a continuous analyser
was developed for this method.
After validation, the new system will, first of
all, be installed in Rosignano (Italy). It may
then be transposed to the electrolytic plants
of the Group that run on salt containing
iodine as an impurity.
> Koen Vermeiren; Neil Breton;
Davide Mantione; Alessandra Pastacaldi.
> CC ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGIES

104940
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSIONS
OF ADVERSE EVENT REPORTS
ON-LINE SHARING
AND COOPERATION
The new governmental regulations
that require the electronic submission
of adverse event reports have forced
the pharmaceutical industry to adapt
to new technologies.
While the FDA (Food and Drug
Administration - US) only recommends
the use of electronic systems, Europe, via
the EMEA (European Medicines Agency) has
made it compulsory. A multidisciplinary team
got down to work and, after 18 months
of intense development, implemented,
in the autumn of 2004, a system that meets
all the requirements, the E2B system.
Thanks to this work, Solvay is still today one
of the rare pharmaceutical companies
capable of complying with these regulations
world-wide. The E2B system extracts
the parts relating to adverse events from
the safety database formats them and
submits them to the competent authorities.
It makes it possible to collect these events
from 40 national Solvay Pharmaceuticals
sites and those of 80 licensing partners
and to share them. It also facilitates
the cooperation with partners using
this same standard.
> Raha Alavi; Joyce Allen; Martin Becker;
Robert Buchberger; Geneviève Dorris;
Gisela Kelbe; Erna Koelman; Susan Kuebler;
Klaus Roethemeyer; Eiko Soehlke; Stella Spyrou;
Erick Valero; Fernando Venegas; Wolfgang Wagner;
Beatrix Windolph-Leicht; Laura Wolf.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
105128
PARTICIPATION TO EXELTIUM (INDUSTRIAL
CONSORTIUM OF INTENSIVE ELECTRICITY
CONSUMERS IN FRANCE)
SUSTAINABLE CONTROL
OVER ELECTRIC
ENERGY COSTS
To prepare for the very probable significant
increases in electricity prices, seven
intensive electricity consumer companies,
including Solvay, have come together in the
form of a consortium, which was later joined
by 50 other companies.
The goal of this consortium (Exeltium)
is to set up an electricity supply mechanism
that is stable and that offers much more
competitive costs in the long term
(a minimum of 15 years). This is the first
initiative of its kind world-wide.
For Solvay, one of the seven founder
members, Exeltium, will guarantee our
French sites of Tavaux, Dombasle, Feyzin and
Giraud, a reliable and sustainable supply
amounting to over 1 500 GWh per year.
> Philippe Warny; Xavier Clerget;
Claude Conrard; Luc Lebrun; Jean Maillard;
François Voiseux.
> CC ENERGY
Performance improvement
105003
HUMAN DOSE RANGE PREDICTION
THE RIGHT DOSE
STRAIGHT OFF
Research is being conducted to find ways
of reducing drug development time
within the framework of a global project,
currently underway, the “Breakthrough”
project. Formulations for humans are
generally based on a range of doses that can
go from 1 to 100. Developing a 100 mg
formulation instead of a 1 mg formulation
incurs very different costs and calls for
different development times, which can be
significantly reduced by a targeted prediction
of the dose range. A model based on
non-clinical pharmacological data has been
developed. It makes use of already familiar
dose ranges for different animal species
and for each component studied. In practice,
as much pharmacokinetic data as possible,
on a maximum of different species, is gathered
as input for the model which then goes
on to calculate the dose to be prescribed
to humans. The model, validated on
10 molecules currently being developed,
has proved to be reliable in over 80%
of cases, for ranges of between 1 and 25.
The development time required
to determine doses will thus be reduced
by 9 to 12 months.
> Ruben De Kanter; Tanja Bernier;
Barbara Hedeman Joosten; Han Op’t Lan;
Mireille Vossen.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
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47

Dossier
104188
48
USING MELTCRYSTALLIZATION INSTEAD
OF ACETONE CRYSTALLIZATION
FOR PURIFICATION OF CHOLESTEROL
GREATER PURITY
WITHOUT SOLVENTS
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
Crystallisation is a classic chemical process
that is used to isolate and purify the
end-products. The traditional processes,
which use solvents, are heavy users of
energy, which is required for the evaporation
of the solvents. The subsequent
indispensable stages involving the filtration
and washing of the crystals obtained are also
difficult to control. The innovation consists
on directly doing the crystallization from the
melted product, therefore without using
solvents. The crystals separate naturally from
the impurities. By repeating the operation
several times, we can obtain a product
of a very high purity. This process has been
developed with an external partner
(Sulzer/Switzerland) and has proved to be
effective for the purification of cholesterol.
When applied to other products under study
in the Group, for an equivalent level
of production, compared with acetone
crystallisation, meltcrystallization:
• consumes less energy;
• costs less in terms of equipment;
• is safer (no solvent);
• is less labour-intensive;
• is more productive.
> Hans Hoogendijk; Jeffrey Felix.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
101924
OPTIMIZATION OF SOLVAY SOLOX PLANT
THINKING OUTSIDE
THE BOX LEADS
TO CONCLUSIVE RESULTS!
The production of epichlorhydrine in
Rheinberg (Germany) uses large
quantities of water, approximately 350 m3 per hour. The water is treated in the Solox
plant to significantly reduce the CSB and
AOX emissions. An improved method was
developed to dramatically reduce the
consumption of chlorine and bisulphate.
This only required modifications to be made
to the existing process. No major investment
was needed. The original method also used
a great deal of energy to heat the water up to
130°C before mixing in the additives
to destroy the organic compounds. Then
the water has to be cooled down again.
The new process is as simple as it is efficient.
Simply changing the sequence in which the
reactants are added reduces the time
required to treat the organic AOX. This
minimizes the consumption of chlorine
and bisulphate. The emissions in the water are
well below the statutory limits. The resulting
savings of approximately EUR 390 000 per
year have a significant effect on
the profitability of the process. Finding
the solution considerably benefited from
the open-minded approach; a working group
was able to positively question the existing
experience and opinions and thus the
successful solution to optimize the process.
> Franz-Jozef Krekeler; Klaus Huecklekemkes;
Frank Steffens.
> SBU EDS
104407
AIR SHOWER FOR RAW MATERIALS,
FINISHED PRODUCTS AND PERSONNEL
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Air showers, designed by the Engineering
Department, have been installed for
both personnel and products. It has been
found that this is the best solution to meet
the requirements of the production
standards related to the access of personnel,
their equipment and the materials into
regulated production zones. The personnel
walk into an airlock in which the filtered air
is forced upwards at a high speed,
eliminating the dust and other fibre residues.
For the materials, the speed of the air is
increased and the ionised air is even more
efficient. Not only is the investment minimal,
this system is also user-friendly,
straightforward, completely safe,
environmentally-friendly and can be installed
in only six to eight weeks. Furthermore,
the original design of the system facilitates
compliance with the GMP manufacturing
standards. It also makes it possible to cut
down on the number of persons working in
the production zones, as, without this kind
of system, the standards require one person
per product, with a specific type
of equipment, for each working zone.
> Aurea Xumetra; Juan Carlos Correa; Oscar Roig;
Jesús Manuel Vega.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR

100638
E-BILLING TO SIMPLIFY AND SPEED THE MANUAL
INVOICE HANDLING PROCESS,
IN PERFECT COMPLIANCE WITH THE EC LAW
FASTER, LEGALLY CONFORM
AND PAPERLESS!
Reducing the time spent on invoice
handling, avoiding errors and integrating
the electronic processes: that is what the
introduction of electronic billing sets out to
achieve. And it will save around 600 000 sheets
of paper into the bargain. This project
coincides with the entry into force of the
European directive on electronic billing and
the transposal of this regulation into national
law. Based on an estimated 200 000 annual
invoices, the project claims to generate a
cost-saving of EUR 300 000. Taking into
account both the cost of the programmes
and the setting up of the new system, the
investment pays for itself in only three
months! The electronic invoice, a “pdf”
document is completed by the certified
electronic signature, according to the legal
requirements. Both are sent to the client by
e-mail. The software of Authentidate AG,
was selected in September 2005 and the
server and the software were set up during
the first quarter of 2006. The project is being
tested in Spain with the Solvay Chemicals
and SolVin clients. It will then be rolled out
in all for all the European customers and for
the 3S entity for the ‘self-billing’ to suppliers.
Solvay is thus joining the select circle of the
five chemical companies in the world to offer
such a service to its clients.
> Haimo Zekoll; Bernadette Hislaire; Chantal Liesse;
Christophe Pariset; Montserrat Paulos;
Richard Verlaque.
> CHEMICALS SECTOR
105231
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH IN THE EXTRACTION
AND OPTIMIZATION OF FLUORSPAR
RECOVERY AT THE SOLVAY OKORUSU
FLUORSPAR MINE - NAMIBIA
A MINE OF GOOD
IDEAS AT OKORUSU
Since the acquisition of the Okorusu
mine (Namibia) by Solvay in 1997,
constant efforts have been made to improve
the production of fluorspar concentrates
(CaF2). The ore contains between 30 and
40% of CaF2. The mine, which carries out the
flotation of the ore on site to extract sterile
gangue, supplies its concentrates to the
Solvay plants of Bad Wimpfen (Germany)
and Porto Marghera (Italy). Production
increased gradually from 23 000 tonnes
in 1997 to 80 000 tonnes in 2003. The main
difficulties lied in producing a 97%
concentrate of CaF2 while maintaining the
presence of the other elements in line
with the required specifications. A first
breakthrough was achieved through the use
of a new reagent, which saw production
spiral to 104 000 tonnes in 2004. However,
the process developed called for specific ores
with a very low carbonate content and
consequently, thousands of tonnes of ore
with an excessive carbonate content were
building up as they were unsuitable
for production. On the initiative of Dr
Gerstenberg, the research concentrated on
treating the concentrates with an acid. Under
the supervision of Roy Verburgt, the team
made further progress by using NH4FHF
(ammonia bifluoride), which made it possible
to improve the safety and management of
the leaching process. The technology was
immediately rolled out at industrial level
in August of 2005. These improvements
restored the profitability of the mine, which
had been endangered by the appreciation
of the local currency. The possibility of
exploiting a poorer ore and obtaining a
richer concentrate considerably increased the
mine’s lifetime. It has set itself a production
goal of 127 000 tonnes in 2007.
> Rolf Gerstenberg; Mark Dawe; Willem Nependa;
Roy Verburgt.
> SBU FLUOR
Performance improvement
101361
A REVOLUTION IN HEAT TRANSFER AT HIGH
PRESSURE: THIN WALL REACTOR
ONE INNOVATION
AFTER THE OTHER
In chemical processes that require the use
of pressurized, heated or refrigerated reactors,
the heat is transferred via a double jacket
through the wall of the reactor. Generally,
the thickness of the reactor is increased
in line with the pressure and the diameter,
which, at the same time, reduces the transfer
of heat. Several technological attempts have
therefore been made to reduce the thickness
of the wall, in particular through a special,
complicated and thus costly design.
The SolVin teams thought along other lines
to break the dependency between the
internal pressure and the thickness of the
wall involved in the heat transfer. They
worked on the idea of a very thin laser
welded internal wall, formed through
hydrodeformation at high pressure. To
achieve this result, it was necessary to tackle
the process itself, by balancing the pressures
of the reactor and of the cooling water. The
thickness of the internal wall could thus be
drastically reduced (from 27 to 1.5 mm) and
the heat transfer was doubled. A first
application of the process has proven
successful in Jemeppe (Belgium) on a reactor
of 100 litres. Various modelling
and engineering studies have demonstrated
the industrial feasibility of the process.
The development prospects are quite broad,
as the process can be applied to all high
pressure heat transfer procedures.
> Jean-Paul Bindelle; Jean-Marie Blairon;
Daniel Borremans; Olivier Brulard;Thierry Cartage;
Manuel de Francisco; Stéphane Ghislain;
Maryse Granville; Philippe Guiche; Claude Laugel;
Dominique Martinez.
> SBU VINYLS
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105134
50
HIGH CLARITY POLYSULFONES
THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS…
BUT DOES IT HAVE
TO STAY THAT WAY…
The UDEL ® Polysulfone is a transparent,
high-performance material, which is used
as an alternative solution for polycarbonate
in a large number of applications.
However, one hiccup has always prevented
its widespread deployment : its characteristic
yellow colouring. However, clients such as
Johnson & Johnson were demanding a
moulded injection solution to be used within
the framework of the production of optic
lenses. The innovation resided in the fact
that a pluridisciplinary team approached the
problem from a new angle, by asking the
revolutionary question, does a polysulfone
have to be yellow? After three years of
intense work carried out jointly by the R&D
department and the plant, the team
managed to reduce the colouring factor from
a degree of 60-80 to a degree of 20 and was
able to develop a colourless polysuflone
known as “water-white”, a true technological
breakthrough. This discovery has made it
possible to increase the range by half a
dozen new high clarity products, giving
Solvay a significant competitive advantage
on this market and making it possible to
meet the expectations of the clientele who
had been unsatisfied until then. For two
years, the new technology has proven its
stability and the sales of polysulfones have
followed suit, ensuring the vitality and
growth of this activity which is strategic
for the SBU.
> Jamal el-Hibri; Atul Bhatnagar; Edward Buckwald;
Ron Lupardus; Thomas Schwab; Skip Slatton; Jeff
Straw.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
105037
Performance improvement
IMPROVED PERCARBONATE TANKER LOADING FACILITY
ON WARRINGTON SITE USING A WEBCAM SYSTEM
A TANKER INSPECTION
WITHIN VIEW
OF THE CAMERA
Traditionally, Warrington site (UK) has used a
dedicated tanker fleet for the bulk transport
of percarbonate (PCS). Tankers would return
empty to the plant from the UK customer,
resulting in poor utilisation of the vehicles.
A new transporter proposed a new business
model involving the use of the tanker to carry
plastic granules on the return journey, with a
cleaning phase prior to reloading with PCS.
Contamination of the PCS, either with material
from a previous load or with water from the
cleaning process could lead to product
decomposition, either during transport or on the
customer’s premises. In order to control the
cleanliness of the tanker prior to loading a
tanker inspection must be carried out to ensure
that the tanker is clean and dry. This inspection is
documented in order to be able to demonstrate
to the client that the safety procedures which
help guarantee product stability have been
followed. A camera system has been installed,
as part of a new PCS loading bay system in
Warrington, to oversee the tanker inspection.
The recording of the inspection is kept for
30 days. Other changes were introduced to
simplify, improve and facilitate the PCS loading
operation including the introduction of a single
PCS loading point on site (simpler maintenance
and control), electronically controlled barriers
to prevent the tanker being moved during
inspection and electric winches for the loading
spout to reduce the risk of driver injuries.
> Wayne Allen; Mark Carters; Bob Minson;
Brian Wilkinson; Brian Woodward.
> SBU DETERGENT

© Zak Kendal / Getty Images
Management
improvement
In terms of leaddership,
human resources management,
organization and partnerships
\ INNOVATION AT INTEL \ Page 52
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 54
\ The “chewing gum” solution\ Training and sharing of best practices
\ An atypical first for the Group \ Skill development for all and for life
\ All the advantages on-line \ Standardisation, coherence and synergies through IT
\ The University for which everyone is responsible \ Innovation Café: Creating a culture of innovation
\ A new way of working together \ The chase is on for Chinese talents \ An original initiative becomes a
success story \ Safety also concerns partners!
> Contact person and team
> Entity submitting the project
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
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Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
52
Since 2000, Intel has been practising a radically new
approach to exploratory research. Realizing
that collaboration with universities is essential
for exploration and that the issue of intellectual
property rights was introducing tension into universitybusiness
company relations, Intel had
to come up with something new. Intel’s solution
is to collaborate as peers by creating a small lab
on or close to campus and allowing research freedom
under a broad Intel-Research vision and agenda.
A daring piece of folly? Whilst admitting an occasional
hick-up inherent to the nature of the labs, Intel
is continuing with this approach which creates a
fantastic working atmosphere and generates much
more interesting results.
Intel is known across the world as the number one producer
of integrated circuits and semiconductors. The little “Intel
inside” sticker on your laptop tells you that it is fitted with an
Intel processor - Pentium, Celeron, Xeon, Core or Dual Core.
This is a very fast-moving market, in which manufacturers
maintain leadership only by remaining at the sharp edge
of technology.
Intel was born in California in 1968, and grew rapidly under the
leadership of Andrew S. Grove, Gordon E. Moore and Robert W.
Noyce. In 1991, with the advent of personal computers (PCs)
based on x86 processors, Intel climbed to first place among electronic
chip manufacturers. It is still there, employing 100 000
people worldwide, with 11 production units and six dedicated
assembly and testing facilities. The one European production
unit is at Dublin, in Ireland.
Innovation at the heart of the corporate mission
Innovation is a central concept in Intel’s mission. Intel employs
around 7 000 people in R&D. Technology Director Justin Rattler
directs the R&D strategy. In inter-networked laboratories across
the world, his teams are working hard on short and medium-term
operational development projects in close liaison with the various
parts of the business. Intel also has a technology marketing
centre. Finally, six years ago Intel launched an exploratory research
department with a radically new angle. Intel has developed its
OCR (Open and Collaborative Research) model to reduce
Intel laboratory at Cambridge University (England).
Intel: researching in a
of openness and coo
conflicts around intellectual property, a legal concept that acts as
a brake on cooperation between industries and universities. “We
want our researchers not to be worrying about intellectual rights”,
explains Intel Research Associate Director Hans Mulder. “This
approach has enabled us to attract the most brilliant brains and to
allow them to really develop their ideas. In our university laboratories
you won’t see a researcher whispering to another scientist in a
corridor and then shutting up when a student passes within earshot!”
Intel has set up four university-linked laboratories: three in the
United States (Berkeley, Pittsburgh and Seattle) and one in Europe
(Cambridge). The reason is clear: world-class universities, very
smart people, collaborative in nature, and because of their excellence,
places where good ideas from other universities pass through
by means of visitors, new faculty, presentations, etc. Located in the
immediate proximity of university campuses, these small laboratories
are staffed by 12-18 researchers, but have space for 40 to
50. This allows them to take in university students and interns
who provide key brainpower for particular projects. These laboratories
are directed (except at Cambridge) by a university professor
employed by Intel to develop a specific project. Intel offers this
professor a laboratory, a team and space for students. The result
is an effective research tool, with both equipment and brainpower.
The quality of the professor and his or her commitment to
successfully carrying through the project are obviously decisive

spirit
peration
success factors. But if the project succeeds, the professor knows the
entire clout of the Intel group is there to bring the idea to
concrete realization.
From research to production
These laboratories operate on the principle of cooperation, rather
than competition. Property rights are not exclusive, and most
research results are published and widely disseminated. “It is this
encouragement to share their research results which pushes researchers
to work better and obtain better results”, Hans Mulder continues.
Each project is closely followed by an Intel manager. It is the relationship
with the researchers that the company is trying to prioritize.
“We don’t want to manage a project’s details, nor can we
impose it on the market. Neither can we control researchers and prevent
them from deciding to change life style or to take another path,
or even to move to the competition. We try therefore to maintain good
relations, and even to extend these outside our structures to make sure
good ideas are carried through… We believe it is better to influence
the entire ecosystem to bring projects to fruition than for these to fall
by the wayside”.
Has Intel discovered the new path of innovation? “It’s far from
simple, and to be honest I don’t have the miracle recipe”, Hans Mulder
admits. “Investing in the implementation phase of a
© Chris Northeast
Management improvement
Intel helps detect
eye disease in India
Under the direction of Eric Brewer,
the former founder of Inktomi
(search engines), the Intel laboratory
at Berkeley (USA) is developing a
project to make a quality infrastructure
available to the poorest countries.
By selecting the most standardized
technologies used in the west
and combining them as effectively
as possible to reduce costs, the team
is developing DTN (delay tolerant
networking) aimed at overcoming
the connectivity difficulties
experienced in disadvantaged regions.
This project is used for example
in India to undertake eye examinations
across an entire rural region.
In this way people no longer travel
in from their village to be examined
at city hospitals. Instead a computer
is installed in each village, linked
to an eye analysis system.
A new generation network, less
demanding in terms of connectivity
than the TCP/IP protocol, allows
this computer to be connected up
with the hospital computer.
project is still the most difficult decision to take.” With their
concern for cost control and their focus on today’s products –
and Intel is no exception here – companies are enormously resistant
to risk taking.
Intel founder Andy Grove knows a thing or two about this. Forty
years ago he himself quit the company he was working for. Why?
Because no one at Fairchild wanted to listen to his ideas… Which
is why he founded Intel! ●
© Sonesh Surana
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Dossier
54
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
101339 104142
EXTENDING MERCURY CELLS PLATES’ LIFE
WITH A METHOD SO SIMPLE THAT IT WAS
SUPPOSED TO BE IMPOSSIBLE
THE “CHEWING GUM”
SOLUTION
The plates of the mercury electrolysis
cells suffer degradations as a result
of corrosion and erosion caused by
the brine and the mercury.
Repairs via welding or brazing are not
possible and the only option is to replace
them. However, in the mid term, the mercury
cells will be withdrawn to make way
for another technology: membrane cells.
An original solution has been found and
successfully implemented in Tavaux (France).
The lifetime of these plates is extended
by filling the degraded areas with
thermosetting resins. This solution, which
was first deemed to be unthinkable,
developed with a company specialising
in coatings, makes it possible to extend the
lifetime of the mercury cells at a low cost.
Referred to as the “chewing gum” solution,
this development once again proves that
the best ideas are often the simplest ones.
> Pascal Vandewattyne; Dominique Chaudot;
François Gras; Christophe Page; Richard Poirault;
Konrad Roumieux.
> CC ECM – MATERIALS & CORROSION
SOLVAY ACADEMY FOR PHARMACEUTICALS
TRAINING AND SHARING
OF BEST PRACTICES
In view of the rapid growth of Solvay
Pharmaceuticals, the idea is to create
a training department, focusing specially
on the sale and marketing of pharmaceutical
products. This Solvay Academy would
appoint its trainers from among the best
recognised talents in these professions. With
its own Intranet site, the Solvay Academy
would offer a programme to all the sales
and marketing staff, it would put the best
practices identified throughout the
organisation at the disposal of all.
Workshops could be organised quarterly
and the Intranet communication updated
every week. This academy should help to
permanently improve the performance levels
in the field of the sale and marketing
of pharmaceutical products and make Solvay
Pharmaceuticals a world-class company,
capable of taking the changes brought about
by acquisitions and partnerships in its stride.
> Suresh Ramadasan.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
104600
CREATE AN INNOVATIVE ATMOSPHERE
INTRODUCING ART AT THE PLANT
AN ATYPICAL FIRST
FOR THE GROUP
Building on the suggestion of one of its
employees, the Solvic Lillo plant (close
to Antwerp, Belgium) took the daring step
of promoting a very innovative artistic event.
In collaboration with the Royal Academy
of Fine Arts of Antwerp, it invited six students
from the In Situ 3 workshop to come up with
a work of art for its site. The only condition
imposed was the choice of background
for the works: roofs, unused infrastructures,
tanks, administrative areas. After a tough
competition, seven works were selected
by a jury made up of employees from the
plant and professors from the Academy.
The idea was not only to support the artistic
promotion of young talents, but to stimulate
the personnel to think differently, with
creativity, by making it possible to create
a pleasant and innovative atmosphere arising
both from contact with the works and with
the students. The aim being to trigger
innovative projects internally. The works,
which were presented to the general public
during the Open Days of the Belgian chemical
industry, proved to be very beneficial:
• they have inspired the plant’s personnel,
who have themselves decorated an
administrative building on the theme
of the cinema;
• they have nurtured closer links between
the outside world and the plant;
• they give the plant a well-kept, attractive
and innovative image;
• they have given the Antwerp Academy
an unusual stage, which has included them
in a book dedicated to the work of In Situ 3.
> Norbert Deckers; Guido Derycke;
Marina Goeyvaerts; Christiane Malcorps;
Kris Van’t Hof.
> SBU VINYLS

104806
COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT IN DISCOVERY:
“HIT – HANDLUNGSKOMPETENZ IM TEAM”
SKILL DEVELOPMENT
FOR ALL AND FOR LIFE
Originally intended, back in 2002,
to accompany an internal reorganisation,
a new continuous process of systematic skills
development has proven to be essential
to help the “Discovery” department
of Pharma Hanover in its contribution
to the creation of the “New Solvay
Pharmaceuticals”.
This process combines the professional
knowledge and methodical know-how
with the personal and social skills of the
employees and takes place in three stages:
• definition of the skills profiles required
for the various functions, in pharmaceutical
discoveries;
• implementation and use of self-evaluation
tools, feedbacks, evaluation by others and
summaries during an individual interview;
• proposal and setting up of a development
programme after validation.
The emphasis was put above all on in-the-
field learning, experience having shown that
this approach is the most profitable. One of
the major results of this project is the
realisation of the need for permanent career-
long training, both for the employees and
the managers. Furthermore, a significant
increase in reflection skills has been
observed, translated by a huge impact
on the capacity to innovate.
The improvements in working culture and
learning in the department make it a subject
of a scientific study and have been measured
by a concrete indicator.
> Janine Artelt; Tanja Bernier; Christoph Hemme;
Manuela Martin; Werner Packmor; Hubert Thole;
Susanne Thun-Battersby; Heiko Vogel-Lahrmann.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
105083
SOLVAYREWARDS ONLINE
ALL THE ADVANTAGES
ON-LINE
In the United States, recruiting and retaining
valued employees is a critical business
objective. Solvay offers its US-based employees
a competitive and comprehensive benefits
package in addition to their base salary and
incentive compensation. Yet, often people tend
to look only at the figure at the bottom
of their pay check when they evaluate their total
remuneration. Hence the decision to develop
SolvayRewards Online: the interactive employee
self-service web tool that ensures employees
see the total remuneration picture. Developed
in early 2005 in collaboration with ACS, a
world-leader in e-solutions and business process
outsourcing, this on-line information system
makes it possible to review, in real time, the
actual value of direct and indirect compensation,
whether immediate or deferred: base salary,
bonus, health and welfare insurance benefits,
pension benefits, government-mandated
benefits, and other elements of remuneration.
Furthermore, this system, which is accessible via
both the Internet and Solia, the Solvay intranet,
is linked to the Solvay FutureChoice website,
where employees can keep track of and manage
their retirement benefits (pension and savings).
It is also linked to the SolvayChoice/Interactive
Workforce web site, on which employees can
manage their health and welfare insurance
benefits. Additionally, with the click of a mouse
employees can print out current and historic
annual records of their total remuneration.
The automation of these tools offers a two-fold
advantage. Not only does it facilitate efficiency
within human resources by allowing Solvay HR
staff to focus on more added value activities,
but it also reveals to employees that Solvay is an
employer of choice through the easy visibility
of all aspects of remuneration.
> Scott Allen; Anne Allex; Tara Johnson;
Michelle Zent.
> BSC NAFTA
Management improvement
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
55

Dossier
105011
56
CONSOLIDATION AT EUROPEAN LEVEL OF 3 HR
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
PROCESSES IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THE HANZINELLE I
ORGANIZATION MODEL
STANDARDISATION,
COHERENCE
AND SYNERGIES THROUGH IT
Managing the businesses, world-wide,
while complying with the organisation
model defined by Hanzinelle I, calls for a certain
degree of standardisation of policies, processes,
systems and tools. The aim is to make the most
of the synergies and avoid the creation of silos
per business or per country/region.
This kind of standardisation is only possible
with the intelligent use of one and the same IT
system. And that is precisely what has been
achieved with this project.
The coherence between the three processes and
the new synergies created are now taking
tangible form for the internal clients:
1. in line with the Hanzinelle I model, a new
electronic organisation chart has been
developed showing the functional
and administrative views of the organisation:
• the functional view describes the Group
independently of the geographic sites;
• the administrative view allows regroupings at
four levels : site, country, region and Group.
2. the functional dimension of this organisation
chart steers the Managing Performances
process, which is also computerised, the e-PDA ;
3. in the compensation revue process
for the Senior Managers, in Europe, the
electronic system gathers the data directly from
the e-PDA and proposes the corresponding
budgets, to each Direction.
The first two processes and the e-PDA are now
directly accessible to managers and employees
via the new integrated SOLIA IT system.
> Thierry Lefevre; Monique Anciaux; Bernard Becoulet;
Nicole Dewaele; Christine Gilis; Wolfgang
Hackelboerger; Murielle Larzille; Sabine Mueller;
Marita Notzke-Pollakowski; Liliane Penelle; Alain
Steinier; Michael Thylmann; Marie-Christine Vervier.
> DCRH
104991
THE INERGY UNIVERSITY: A NEW WAY
OF LEARNING IN A GLOBAL ORGANIZATION
THE UNIVERSITY
FOR WHICH EVERYONE
IS RESPONSIBLE
How to create a strong feeling
of belonging, retain talents and effectively
share knowledge in a medium-sized
company scattered over 18 countries
and active on 31 sites world wide? How, at the
same time, to better adapt to the evolution of
an increasingly competitive sector, where the
involvement of the personnel and its know-
how are key factors? In 2002, Inergy came up
with the answer to these questions with its
Inergy University project,
a true managerial system for internal global
training intended to meet the transversal
needs both in R&D (alignment of the
technological and commercial objectives)
and in HR (participative culture and personal
development). Today, the University
proposes 42 training programmes, all
designed internally, given by 120 trainers,
with an international perspective. The
programmes are supported by a dedicated
Web site which is managed locally and
coordinated globally. In 2005, 1 570 partners
in product or process development were also
trained there which undoubtedly helped
to foster closer links. In three years, it has
become a strategic tool and a showcase
for the Inergy values, which are respect
of people, sense of the common good, and
commitment towards the excellence of the
service. It thus helps to make the company
more competitive and more attractive.
> Sylvie Le Bourhis; François de Font-Réaulx;
Sophie Naimi.
> SBU INERGY

105028
STIMULATING INNOVATION AT SOLVAY ADVANCED
POLYMERS – THE INNOVATION CAFÉ
INNOVATION CAFÉ:
CREATING A CULTURE
OF INNOVATION
Innovation is widely recognized as the key
to long-term survival in today’s business climate.
Harnessing the power and realizing the business
benefits of innovation prompted the Leadership
Team of Solvay Advanced Polymers to formalise
the innovative process. This began with
the creation of a multifunctional, global
Innovation Team. Their goal – develop and
encourage the processes and tools that enable and
facilitate innovation across the entire organization.
The Team followed a model known as Open
Innovation to gather best practices, which it
combined with the results of its own research
to develop a context for innovation known as the
Innovation Cafe. This distinctive framework
has inspired a culture change, unleashing and
stimulating the innovation potential in all
900+ employees. Introduced in 2005, it focuses
innovation efforts on strategic challenges facing
the business, a practice proven to yield high-quality
and even breakthrough ideas. Moreover
it provided a framework and tool box to help
innovators generate ideas. Twenty-two employees
from the main worldwide sites were trained as
facilitators. Their mission is to carry out idea
generation sessions to support the Challenges.
Finally, an idea management process was
introduced to manage ideas as they move
from creativity to implementation. More than
30 Challenges have been carried out using
this process, with participation by over half of all
employees. Thousands of raw ideas have been
generated, many of which have led to new
projects in various areas of the business. Several
ideas have led to a significant increase
in revenues. The process is now considered
to be vital by Solvay Advanced Polymers.
> Thomas Balsano; Brian Alexander; William Bailey;
Maria Bertucci; Allison Crupi; Ian Kowalski;
Kermit Kwan; Stuart Mitchell; Vincent Nedeff;
Shawn Shorrock; Ray Summey; Grover Wallace;
Gregory Warkoski.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
104639
SOLIA: A SOLVAY WIDE PERSONALIZED
ENVIRONMENT FOR MANAGING KNOWLEDGE
AND INFORMATION AND A PRIVILEGED VECTOR
FOR COLLABORATION AND COMMUNICATION
A NEW WAY
OF WORKING TOGETHER
From its outset in 2003, this project pursued
a clear ambition: much more
than an IT tool, its aim was to give a kick-start
to a far-reaching cultural change at Group
level, to promote the sharing of knowledge,
to give each employee a working autonomy
and to provide each entity with international
communication possibilities.
Defined with two university partners (ULB
and Vlerick Business School) and several
internal partners, the IT platform integrates,
in transparent way for the user, a document
management and collaboration tool,
a Web-based communication tool, a powerful
search engine and an “information cockpit”
that is personalised for each employee, adapted
to his/her function, in his/her own language.
The robustness of the system and the quality
of its governance process, having been
confirmed by pilot tests, SOLIA is now
rearing to go. It currently stocks over
645 000 documents and receives over
362 000 visits per month. The increase of
knowledge sharing within the Group can
already be felt.
> Jean-Louis Lieutenant; Kay Brunner; José Cervera;
Marco De Donno: Massimo Devecchi; Francesco Dilillo;
Pierre Drijvers; François Garang; Juergen Greilich;
Bernadette Hislaire; Robin Jenkins; Muriel Larzille;
Urbano Llamas; Gisèle Maréchal; Thierry Masson;
Eckart Nerge; Johan Parisse; Brian Scott; Luis Serrano;
Annick Stelandre; Sander Vanhulsenbeek;
Haimo Zekoll.
> OFFICE OF THE COMEX
Management improvement
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
57

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
104897
58
CHINESE HIREES PROJECT
THE CHASE IS ON
FOR CHINESE TALENTS
Pinpointing and attracting the managers
that will head up the growth
of the Group’s units in China is the aim
of this project. To achieve it, the Plastics
and Chemicals Sectors launched a
recruitment drive within several Chinese
universities. The purpose was to select
nine young Chinese who could show significant
potential, four for the Plastics Sector and
five for the Chemicals Sector. They would be
offered a two year training scheme to allow
them to adapt to the corporate culture,
both with regard to the Group’s technical
know-how and to its working methods.
2 650 candidates attended the information
session. An arduous selection process led
to a shortlist of twelve, nine of whom accepted
the Solvay offer. Eight of them have Masters
and one holds a PhD. The average age is 24.
To take on the Chinese market in the long
term, Solvay wants to put the values
of respect for the environment and social
conditions at the heart of its Asian culture.
That is why both the technical and human
qualities of the successful candidates are a
precondition for the Group’s success in China.
They will be the promoters of the company’s
sustainable development in Asia.
> Jose Martinez-Adam; Alessandro Bazzarini;
Michel Bokobza; Anna Calderini; Marco Colatarci;
Philippe Descamps; Marc Lahalle; Lana Lim;
Ariane Nemery; Fabrizio Ponte; Michael Thylmann;
Alain Vandenbussche; Joelle Verheyen; Gabriella Zafferri.
> CHEMICALS SECTOR
104514
MATERIAL SCIENCE COMMUNITY
AN ORIGINAL
INITIATIVE BECOMES
A SUCCESS STORY
This project set out to create an
international network of Solvay experts,
to promote and stimulate innovation
and the sharing of knowledge. This
community, recognised by the Executive
Committee, focuses on Material Science
and is the organiser of the “Solvay Science
for Innovation” conference. Organised
in concentric circles, around a core team
of around fifteen persons, its mission
is to provide and share throughout the entire
Group the most advanced and most
comprehensive knowledge in the field
of material sciences. In 2005, the Material
Science Community organised
the ”Molecules and Materials, go beyond
the limits” conference, devoted to
nanotechnologies and advanced materials.
140 of the Group’s researchers, from all
disciplines, as well as external experts from
universities, industry and politics were given
a platform, over two days, to exchange their
expertise and, via workshops, to generate
175 new ideas and over 30 development
projects. An unprecedented success story.
> Richard Thommeret; Vincenzo Arcella; Thierry Baert;
George Corbin; Francine Delplanque; Pierre Dewitte;
Celene DiFrancia; Serge Dupont; Johannes Eicher; Antoine
Ghanem;Anne Goldberg;Valerj Kapeliouchko; Karl Koehler ;
Marc Lacroix; Brigitte Laurent; Vito Leo; Xavier Lepot; Hans
Meyer; Ardechir Momtaz; François Monnet;
Ulf Preuschoff; Sunit Shah; Claude Thibaut de Maisières;
Vincent Thulliez; Les Turski; Eric Vandevijver; Pierre Winant.
> OFFICE OF THE COMEX
Management improvement
104710
SAFETY MANAGEMENT LEADED
BY SUBCONTRATORS
SAFETY ALSO
CONCERNS PARTNERS!
Safety is a permanent concern in a
production unit and that is certainly
true in Dombasle, France. An accident that
takes place on the site, whether the its
responsibility is of the Solvay personnel
or of a subcontractor, always appears in the
press as an “accident at Solvay”. Therefore,
to further drastically reduce the number
of accidents, Dombasle had the idea
to involve the subcontractors to a greater
degree. Putting the emphasis on the concept
of cooperation, Solvay has, fist of all,
involved the subcontracting companies
in the safety audit and set up a mixed team
in charge of safety. The participation of the
subcontractors in the safety team reduces
the time devoted to the control of suppliers
and generates an atmosphere of mutual
trust, to such an extent that now
subcontractors are those managing this
team, a cultural change that sent shock
waves across the local Solvay team.
Since then, a different external company
takes over the management of the safety
team on a rotating basis. Every quarter,
the team develops a theme, which is widely
communicated within the plant. Outcome:
a fourfold reduction in accidents leading
to sick leave.
>Olivier Houzelle; Isa Akbiyik; Atrick Bemsteiner;
Raphael Bouchy; Christophe Galindo; Joel Kob;
Jean-Jacques Merkel; Gilles Mikolajczak; Daniel Pularz;
Lionel Semin; Jean-Paul Viry.
> SBU SODA ASH

Sustainable development
& citizenship
Innovation which balances
economic, social
and environmental responsibilities
\ INNOVATION AT LAFARGE \ Page 60
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 62
\ Using a sub-product of bio-diesel \ Solvay consolidates its leadership position, both in the USA and
world-wide \ Transversal and vertical information management \ Adapt our plants to respect the European
\ requirements \ Sheltering refugees \ Giving start-ups a kick start on the Belgium-NOH R&T site
\ One first after another \ A double economy \ Chemistry and Nature \ The drive for green diesel
\ From monitoring to immediate response \ The value is in the tube \ Aretusa: more water for the region
\ High gloss polyolefins \ Turning an expense into a profit \ Conciliate professional and private life
> Contact person and team
> Entity submitting the project
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
59

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
60
Ordinarily, tradition and innovation confront each
other like sworn enemies.
At Lafarge, the world’s number one construction
materials group, they’ll freely admit that the sector
used to be somewhat conservative, but they’re
determined to move beyond this with a genuine
strategy for progress. By thinking about people
and their environment.
Apriori, many powerful forces act as a brake on innovation.
To mention just the two largest: force of habit
amongst professional builders and the low turnover of
customers, which do little to encourage suppliers to adopt
new ways of working. Despite all this, the Lafarge group has decided
to press ahead, against the current, and to provide customers
with greater value. And its research budget, whilst low compared
with other sectors, is above that of its competitors. A major component,
moreover, is a change of mindset, which in principle costs
nothing. Like when, faced with a problem of foaming during plaster
production, Lafarge people went to Danone to see how it stabilizes
its chocolate mousse.
Progress by breaking with the past
This proactive approach is enabling Lafarge to bring to market
resolutely new products, which break with existing solutions.
Corporate policy is to move beyond the incremental progress
often linked to process research, with innovative products deriving
directly from pure research.
This policy is producing really amazing results. For example,
Lafarge is right now testing concretes which remain very fluid
for two hours and then set so fast that the formwork can be
removed after four hours. It also produces 400 m 2 slabs without
joints or cracks, which reduces maintenance costs 16-fold.
It has also succeeded in producing plasterboards with four
rounded edges, permitting for the first time the perfect finishing
of plasterboard walls.
It is important to state that Lafarge’s good technical and commercial
results are the outcome of the group’s desire to speed up
progress, expressed in a series of very concrete programmes.
This is a complex process embracing both sales and research.
Product application:
the Spinnaker Tower (U.K.).
Far beyond legal oblig
As Lafarge people are quick to remind you, the success of an innovation
lies not in the product itself, but the ability to deploy it
and make it a success (1) .
Sustainable citizenship
Although this is not easy, Lafarge tries to have as strong an environmental
and citizenship policy as possible. At times this lies in the
novelty of its products. For example in a range of self-placing concretes,
which do not need to be “vibrated” into place, and which
offer the cumulative benefits of better filling quality, better productivity
and reduced noise nuisance. Or again dust-free cements
which provide workers with healthier working conditions. In most
cases this policy is the fruit of the house philosophy - far from new
- which takes a pro-active stance in an industry that, by definition,
leaves a real imprint on our world. Like on landscapes: extracting
450 million tonnes a year from more than 1 000 quarries necessarily
leaves traces. Quarries are rehabilitated under plans which go
much further than legal requirements. Better still, Lafarge has
turned an obligation into a strategic direction: its soil remediation
programme at its own sites serves as an example to others. When
new operating permits are requested, decision-making authorities
and pressure groups are invited to an already rehabilitated site,
which becomes a visiting card. “If you’re not at the top, you’re
nowhere”, they say at Lafarge. This logic has been pushed as far as
producing meticulous biodiversity indexes (in conjunction with
WWF International), with a commitment to replicate these on quitting
the site. And last, but far from least, Lafarge applies its ethics

ations
without distinction, whatever the country, wherever in the world.
Another delicate issue it has faced head-on is the carbon gas emissions
from heating limestone kilns with fossil fuels to produce
cement. Here too Lafarge has taken a proactive stance. In 2000,
working in partnership with WWF, it made a worldwide commitment
to reduce emissions by 20% per tonne of cement between
now and 2010 (2) , with Price Waterhouse called in to provide objective
audits. Getting this right is very pertinent to its Lafarge’s activity.
Indeed, a large part of its research budget is devoted to optimizing
combustion processes.
Innovation prize
Every three years or so, Lafarge organizes its “Innovation Awards”
ceremony concurrently with a meeting of 600 top managers. A village
is set up for the occasions with stands for prize-winners to present their
innovations. An award in the “marketing” category went to recently a
transfer of practice. The group’s Indian entity had created a Customer
University to invigorate its service to clients. The Kenyans became
interested, went to see for themselves, and have since transposed the
principle to their own country, with local adaptations. This horizontal
passing of know-how within the group also falls under the heading of
citizenship innovation.
It also proves that, at Lafarge, innovation is not simple a matter of
Awards, but is anchored in employees’ everyday reflexes. •
(1) The invention transformation rate at Lafarge is a remarkably high nearly 90%.
(2) The commitment covers the period 1990-2010. So far, Lafarge has achieved
a reduction of 13%.
Sustainable Development & citizenship
© DR médiathèque Lafarge.
© DR médiathèque Lafarge.
Wind farm at Tetouan (Morocco).
Global and local
Agilia self-placing concrete
being poured on site.
With 2 100 operating sites in
76 countries, Lafarge has annual
sales of EUR 16 billion. This originally
family-owned French company has
gradually expanded geographically and
climbed to the top of its markets by
basing its activity on four naturally linked
pillars: cement, granulates (stone, gravel
and sand) and concrete, plasterboard
and roofing materials. These are not per
se highly innovative products, which
explains why the R&D budget
is of the order of just 1% of turnover.
Even so, research is seen as highly
important in terms of technological
development. Research work is shared
between a global centre (developing new
compounds, providing ideas
and information on possible fields
of development) and local or regional
technical centres which develop
and perfect processes and provide
technical assistance. This structure reflects
the constraints of largely locally based
operations: each quarry is different,
extracted products do not travel far,
and every new development has
to be adapted to individual sites.
Lafarge reconciles global leadership
and local multiplicity by prioritizing
employee motivation. Nearly
50% of eligible employees hold shares
in the company, producing a sense
of involvement and loyalty.
This is accompanied by a clearly affirmed
policy of giving sites the greatest possible
autonomy: a logical approach, given
the high degree of local specificity
in the group’s activities.
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
© DR médiathèque Lafarge.
61

Dossier
Epicerol
101301
62
EPICEROL: SOLVAY SPEEDS UP
THANKS TO GREEN BIOFUEL!
USING A SUB-PRODUCT
OF BIO-DIESEL
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
Solvay has developed a new process
that has been named Epicerol, which
is based on the transformation of glycerine,
a by-product of the bio-diesel industry.
Epichlorhydrine was used to produce glycerine.
The innovation consists of inversing
the reaction and use the glycerine to produce
epichlorhydrine. The development of the
glycerine based process for the production
of epichlorhydrine has been the subject of 17
patent applications by Solvay. The ever growing
demand for epichlorhydrine, whose main
applications are the production of epoxy resins,
the reinforcement of paper and the purification
of water, are set to exceed the world-wide
production capacities between now and 2010.
Within the framework of the Epicerol process,
the glycerine – a renewable product – takes
the place of propylene, a hydrocarbon. Among
its environmental benefits we can name the
reduction in chlorine by-products, as well as a
significant reduction in water consumption.
The first Epicerol production unit will be
started up in Tavaux (France) in 2007. A second
unit is on the cards for Rheinberg (Germany)
in 2008. Finally, as bio-diesel is an alternative
to fuel, even larger units are being studied
for Asia, Europe and the United States.
The creation of a trademark seals the reputation
of this process, and should shore up its
communication.
> Bruno Jestin; Patrick Gilbeau; Philippe Jacques;
Philippe Krafft.
> SBU EDS
104594 102216
USD 298 MILLION CONTRACT FOR CELL-BASED
PANDEMIC INFLUENZA VACCINE
SOLVAY CONSOLIDATES
ITS LEADERSHIP POSITION,
BOTH IN THE USA
AND WORLD-WIDE
On the 21st of June 2005, after only eight
weeks of intense preparation by a multifunctional
team, Solvay submitted a 700 page
tender to the United States Department of Health
and Human Services (DHHS) in response to its call
for the development and registration of
a cell-based influenza vaccine as well as for the
construction of a production plant in the United
States, capable of producing 150 millions doses
within six months, in the case of a pandemic.
After going through the first selection phase,
Solvay was still in the running with three other
pharmaceutical groups. On the 4 th of May 2006,
Solvay Pharmaceuticals announced the conclusion
of a five year contract with the DHHS for a total
amount of USD 298 million, the biggest share
of the one billion US dollars allocated for this
project, and shared out among the four
short-listed companies. This success is a reflection
of the know-how that we have accumulated over
the past 50 years in influenza vaccines and
of the quality of our new cell culture technology
in the field. It is also the result of the first-rate
involvement of the Solvay staff working in this
Sector who were able to draw lessons from
previous tenders, put together an excellent team
effort and demonstrate flexibility and creativity
in face of the DHHS demands and thus protect
the human race against influenza pandemics.
> Andrew Stevenson; Darya Aberback; Sandra Allen;
Wil Cramer; Curtis Dale; Iris Debruijn;
Mike Dornhecker; Laurie Downey; Michael Emery;
Ed Geuns; Michael Hare; Neil Hirsch; Joanne Kearney;
John Keeshen;Alex Kersten; Sjirk Kok; Patroski Lawson;
Dorine Leyssius; Jeroen Medema; Gerard Rigter;
Pieter Rouwette; Maryellen Schnell; Harold Shlevin;
Jennifer Thurber; Herbert Vanderstrate; Herman
Van Heemstra; Friso Vanvoorthuizen;Thomas Wijnands.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
I-CARE INTEGRATES PRODUCT SAFETY,
PEOPLE SAFETY AND OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
TRANSVERSAL AND
VERTICAL INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT
In this age that is witnessing the globalisation
of business and the widespread circulation
of products, the information relating to health and
environmental risks and to risk prevention must
be reliable, available at any times and in any place
and in forms - often defined by law - that are
adapted to a wide range of publics: clients,
authorities, users and producers, experts, etc.
Within the Group, safely managing a given
product is always the combined responsibility of a
string of experts. To consolidate their know-how
and the information on regulatory obligations,
both for the chemicals used and manufactured in
our plants, the information systems need to be
highly integrated. I-Care makes it possible to
transversally manage – between experts from
several disciplines – and vertically manage –
throughout the Group’s entities – all this
information, whether toxicological,
environmental, technical or relating
to the maze of laws and regulations to be
respected. It also integrates the information on
each type of technical equipment. Finally,
combining this information on the products and
the health monitoring of the personnel, I-Care
makes it possible to manage the data about the
exposure of workers at their workstation and
consolidated medical data such as the bio-
monitoring of possible effects on health. I-Care is
widening its focus to combine data from all these
sources, making it today a model for the entire
chemical industry.
> Pierre Coërs; Willy Asnong; Christiane Baleux;
Luc Barbeaux; Christine Defourny; Laurence Fievet;
Andreas Georg; Eric Moens; Gerhard Neuenfeldt;
Thomas Paschek; Jack Smit; Jacques Vanalsenoy;
Paul Vanhemelryck.
> CC HSE

104981
DEEP REDUCTION OF MAGNETIC FIELDS
IN THE ELECTROLYZE HALLS.
ADAPT OUR PLANTS
TO RESPECT THE EUROPEAN
REQUIREMENTS
Anew European Directive relating to the
protection of the health of operators
exposed to magnetic fields in industrial
environments lays down draconian maximum
limits not be exceed from April 30 2008 on.
Many of our old electrolysis plants, and if we
are not careful the newly designed plants,
exceed or will exceed these limits.
This has led to a quest for solutions, such as:
• the compensation of the fields generated by
new geometries for the electric power bars
• a reduction at the source of the magnetic
fields generated through rectifiers
(transformation of the alternative current
into a continuous current).
Moreover, the measurement method
suggested by the Directive, and proposed
by CENELEC as standard, is very general.
A detailed measurement protocol has been
drawn up by Solvay and also proposed
as standard by CENELEC.
The development of this kind of project was
indispensable to ensure the compliance
of our electrolysis installations with
European legislation.
Thanks to this project, Solvay has acquired
a real leadership in this field.
> Pierre Ligot; Joachim Lange.
> CC ENERGY
103541
Sustainable Development & citizenship
SHELT’EASY, OPEN UP SPACE FOR SOLIDARITY:
A RANGE OF INNOVATIVE PVC
SHELTERS FOR HUMANITARIAN AID
SHELTERING REFUGEES
The seemingly endless string of catastrophes,
natural and otherwise, is giving rise
to a population of permanent refugees that
is estimated at 20 million persons.
The physical and sanitary properties of PVC are
undeniable. These two observations inspired the
innovation known as Shelt’easy. Why not use PVC
to come up with short and mid-term shelters and
basic sanitary infrastructure? The team developed
three light shelters meeting complementary
needs: housing for family units of four persons,
toilets and showers and storage. Another two
versions were also developed suitable for harsh
climatic conditions and long-term use. All of these
shelters have been designed to be light enough
to transport, easy to assemble and dismantle
(they can be put up without specific tools, thanks
to ingenious and exclusive assembly solutions)
and practical due to their self-supporting
structure. The project was the result of the pooled
efforts of various internal entities (Chemicals and
Plastics) and external partners, with a great deal
of input from NGOs. Today, industrial production
has been launched and the first shelters are being
tested on site by a few NGO. This is a passionate
project, at the crossroads between the possibility
of meeting both basic human needs and market
demands and one that offers promising potential
for applications in other fields of activity: industry,
events, tourism, army, etc. And the cherry
on the cake, it ties in with the three pillars
of our sustainable development policy.
> Alain Rémy; Sara Boudailliez; Philippe Bourgain; Manuel
Cardenas; Édith Chardon;Thierry Collard; Étienne
Collignon; Marie-Claude Couturier; Lionel Debeauffort;
Renaat Demeulemeester; Carine Demeyer; Pauline Ferrier;
Jean-Philippe Février; Marc Gansemans; Benoît Gaudriot;
Claude Geneslay; François Groussard; Bernadette Hislaire;
Didier Hisquin; Philippe Huart;Véronique Lamarche;
Michel Leblanc; Xavier Lepot; Paul Marie; Olivier Monfort;
Jean-Marie Oreins; Jacques Roblot;Alain Roggeman;
Richard Thommeret; Robert Vangeyts;
Xavier Vankesteren; Sylvain Vanlaerhoven.
> SBU VINYLS
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Dossier
105021
64
SOLVAY IS OPENING THE GROUP’S
LARGEST R&T CENTER TO START-UPS
GIVING START-UPS
A KICK START ON THE
BELGIUM-NOH R&T SITE
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
Start-ups have to find their way in a very
competitive world that is calling out both
for the rapid emergence of new and high
performance technologies and for drastic cuts
in research costs. These start-ups, which grow
around an initial idea, often find it difficult
to cope with the scientific, technical, legal and
administrative demands placed upon them.
In line with its tradition of offering support
to science, Solvay Research & Technology wants
to encourage the spirit of innovation of the
start-ups and welcomes them into its rich universe
of research laboratories, resources and skills
without it costing the earth for them. The young
companies can thus focus their efforts on their
core business in a stimulating environment that
encourages the cross fertilisation of several
disciplines, such as chemicals, engineering,
materials research, etc. With this initiative, Solvay
R&T is becoming an incubator for start-ups
whose fields of activity are close or
complementary to those of the Group.
It is also for Solvay a means of making
its contribution to the construction
of the knowledge society. A first company,
Artelis, active in the field of biotechnology, set up
on the site in December 2005 and has decided
to continue to grow under the protective wing
of Solvay R&T (20 persons are set to be taken
on in 2007). Applications from other start-ups are
currently being examined.
> Carine Demeyer; Paul Baekelmans; Michel Driesen;
Geneviève Fauville; Alfred Hoffait; Bernard Poulin.
> BSC BELGIUM
105191
LUVOX ® /FLUVOXAMINE IN JAPAN
ONE FIRST AFTER ANOTHER
Before the launch of the LUVOX
(fluvoxamine) in 1999, only traditional antidepressants
were commonly used
in Japan, leading to the following situation:
• too many adverse side effects;
• uncertainty as to the possibilities
of developing and finding a potential market
for the SSRI (“Selective Serotonin Reuptake
Inhibitors“);
• a shortage of drugs to treat Obsessive
Compulsive Disorders and SAD (Social
Anxiety Disorders);
• difficulty in finding the appropriate treatment
for children.
Solvay Seiyaku (Japan) therefore came up with
innovative solutions to all of these issues,
by being the first in Japan:
• to successfully launch fluvoxamine in 1999 to
treat depression and obsessive compulsive
disorders, quadrupling this market between
1999 and 2005 warding off reputed
competitors;
• to obtain approval for this drug to treat SAD
and to successfully launch the drug in 2005;
• to launch the paediatric clinical study at the
beginning of 2006.
The sheer quality of the approach, from the
clinical studies to the market entry, including
the risk taking, the rapid decision-making, the
creation of a standardised diagnosis scale,
recognised and used by the entire profession,
attracted partners to these projects (Meiji
Seika) and was applauded by the authorities.
The result, yet again a first in Japan
in the pharmaceutical industry, was the
awarding of a maximum extension
of marketing exclusivity for these drugs.
This, of course, to the benefit of the patients
who, thanks to fluvoxamine, can look forward
to an improvement in their quality of life.
> Toshiki Tsuji; Guenter Krause; Koji Ohiwa.
> PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR
101500
USE OF PURIFIED BRINE INSTEAD OF SOLID
SALT TO FEED ELECTROLYSIS PLANT WITH NaCI
A DOUBLE ECONOMY
The salt used to feed the membranes of the
electrolysis plant needs to be purified. This
is traditionally carried out via drying
operations through the evaporation of the
brine transported by pipe in its liquid form.
However, the evaporation operations are high
consumers of energy.
The aim of this project is twofold:
• to reduce the total quantity of salt purified
by evaporation, leading to energy savings;
• to feed the Antwerp (Belgium) electrolysis
plant with our salt instead of buying it from
external suppliers, at times of strong demand,
leading to purchasing savings.
To do so, in Jemeppe (Belgium)) we directly
feed the electrolysis plant with saturated
brine without going through the
crystallisation stage. However, it is still
necessary to purify this brine via a new
nanofiltration technology.
The capacity of purification by crystallisation
that is thus freed up in Jemeppe, allows us to
purify the salt for the Antwerp electrolysis.
The budgetary impact can be directly felt,
both in Jemeppe and Antwerp.
> Pol Henry; Fabrizio Aversa; Vittorio Benso;
Alain Hanneuse; Pierre Mauroy; Stéphane Pestiaux.
> SBU VINYLS

104758
THE « CHEMISTRY AND NATURE » PROJECT
CHEMISTRY AND NATURE
Launching a project is good. Broadening
its base and scope of action to give vigour
and life to the ideas that underpin it is much
better. Although we are constantly being
warned about the deterioration of our
environment and about the state of the
Planet, we feel that we lack the necessary
resources and hesitate to take concrete action.
However, each local initiative in the field
of environmental protection raises the
awareness of the populations and goes some
way towards improving the situation. That
is the philosophy behind the environmental
information and training programme launched
by a Solvay team in 1997 in the poor villages
neighbouring the Elclor factory. Presented
in a very accessible manner, this information
often triggers projects that are run by the
local communities themselves (e.g. community
kitchen gardens, selective waste collection,
tree planting programmes). The idea has since
gained ground and today the project has been
restructured into a more direct appeal for
action. With the help of NGOs or schools, it is
gradually spreading to other towns around
São Paulo. 30 000 persons have already seen
their efforts supported by the Chemãstry
and Nature project and associate the image
of the Solvay group with that of sustainable
development.
> Edvam Fonseca; Lisandre Assis; Edison Carlos.
> BSC MERCOSUR
104721
GREEN DIESEL: SOLUTIONS REDUCING THE EXHAUST
EMISSIONS OF DIESEL ENGINES
THE DRIVE FOR GREEN DIESEL
The diesel engine is the big favorite among
drivers and allows a reduction of the CO2
emissions. The diesel market, United States
included, is booming and is forcing industrialists
to find short-term solutions to drastically cut
down on its environmental nuisances: diesel is a
big generator of particulates and of nitrogen
oxides (NOx). SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction)
is the solution recently selected to reduce this NOx
and the particulates filter, acting with an additive
mixed to the diesel, is one of the solutions in
competition to allow an efficient combustion of
the soot. The demand is such that SCR systems
should enter production in 2008 that is two years
earlier than initially planned. To meet
this challenge, Inergy Automotive System
has adopted a totally innovative approach:
it has considered the market broadly, going
outside its perimeter but appealing to its base
competencies, anticipating and working in
partnership with recognized players, both inside
and outside the automotive sector. This resulted in
the development of two systems: DINOX and
INSAS. DINOX is the equivalent of a fuel system
but that allows the stocking of the urea aboard
and its spray injection, which reduces the NOx;
INSAS is a system that allows the automatic
incorporation of an additive each time the tank is
filled, leading to the regeneration at low
temperatures of the particulates filters. The real
prowess is that Inergy has come up with a life-
long system based on a concentrated additive
combined with a high pressure pump which doses
at an extremely low level (less than
one ml per litre of fuel). Moreover, Inergy
has developed new petrol tanks components
with integrated functions.
> Joël Op de Beeck; Mickaël Charrier; Jean-François Midon;
Anne-Claire Chevalier-Cagnol; Éric Destate; Laurent Dexet;
François Dougnier; Philippe Martin;Volodia Naydenov;
Vincent Potier; Jean-Philippe Rolinat;Thierry Rouxel;
Russ Sarquis; Jim Thompson; Jules-Joseph Van Schaftingen;
Cedric Verheyen; Guillaume Zeller; Stéphane Léonard;
Bertrand Thisselin; Jan Vasek; Nadja Walling.
> SBU INERGY
Sustainable Development & citizenship
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65

Dossier
104820
66
SHIVA – REAL-TIME REMOTE MONITORING
AND ALERT OF A SITE’S EMISSIONS
SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
FROM MONITORING
TO IMMEDIATE RESPONSE
In the natural protection area of Santo Andre
(Brazil), controlling the liquid or gaseous
effluents of an industrial site becomes a key
concernThe aim is to react immediately
to any abnormal emission. That is why a real
time monitoring and alert system, unique
in its kind throughout the Group, has been
designed at the Elclor plant. It keeps an eye
over around 300 parametersThe data collected
by the captors (e.g. pH, temperature)
or supplied by the analysers (e.g. presence
of metallic contaminants), are available in real
time in the control rooms, thus making it
possible to quickly detect a potential problem.
Stored in databases, they also make it possible
to generate the reports required by the
authorities. The setting up of SHIVA, which is
up and running since 2001, was made possible
by transposing the IT processes used
to control production (sensors, transmission
and acquisition of remote data) to the control
of effluents. Combined with aerial photos
of the plant, this user-friendly system makes
it possible to immediately detect any anomaly
in the complex network of effluents
and to take an immediate decision on any
corrective action.
> Edilberto Bannwart; Leda Ferreira; Wanderley Bazani;
François Carette; Bruno Cornet; Serge Joris;
Roberta Manzini; Vinicius Zappala.
> CC HSE
104590
PIPELIFE ECO SYSTEMS
THE VALUE IS IN THE TUBE
Apipe transports water. But is there more
to it than that? Yes, says Pipelife,
by developing the ends or the intermediary
points to provide protection. The idea
of Pipelife ECO systems grew from there, after
the acquisition of Propipe, a pipe-maker with
a firm foothold in “ecological“ products
sector. Pipelife is developing a broad range
of products including sand, oil and grease
separators that are incorporated in the sewer
networks. The advantage for the client
is obvious: the possibility of dealing with
one single supplier for different high quality
products that are designed to be compatible.
For Solvay, this is a market that will develop
in line with the growing environmental
awareness and the related legislative
decisions. However, to make the idea
a success, the pipe-laying sector must
be convinced of its utility, by highlighting
mainly the cost-saving aspect, with third party
players. Pipelife intends to adopt a strategy
to meet this objective by developing its R&D,
by encouraging the emergence of local
production companies, by working on
a quality that lives up to European standard,
which is essential if we consider the potential
generated by the countries who recently
joined the Community. Pipelife should quickly
position itself as a company that is more
environmentally friendly than its competitors
and capable of coming up with
the best solutions.
> Hielke Hoekstra; Bojan Cendak; Eddy Keesmekers;
Mika Rajakangas.
> SBU PIPELIFE

105219
ARETUSA PROJECT: WASTER WATER RECYCLING
ARETUSA: MORE WATER
FOR THE REGION
The Rosignano (Italy) plant is a big water
consumer, either to extract the salt or to
produce steam and demineralised water.
This represents 90 million m 3 , 82% of which
is seawater and the remaining comes from
ground water. However, the Rosignano region
suffers from drought, particularly so in the
summer, a season during which the demand
for water increases due to the tourism. It was
important to find a solution to avoid the use
of drinking water for the plant. Solvay
developed the idea of using, as a complement
to seawater, the water coming from the local
purification stations for its industrial needs.
This project required solving several technical
challenges in order to ensure a permanent
supply to the plant and avoid the corrosion
or the installations dirtying. A new water
system was then built which resulted in
significant quality improvements of the
coastal water close to Rosignano and Cecina.
The EUR 9 million project, 60% of which
was subsidised by the European Union,
involved Solvay, the Environmental Services
Agency and the Termomeccanica company.
This project has been rolled out on industrial
scale since February 2006.
> Paolo Ciuffetelli; Pascal Balestin;
Raffaele Calabresedefeo; Gerard Parissis.
> SBU SODA ASH
105082
Sustainable Development & citizenship
PAINT ELIMINATION WITH HIGH-GLOSS INDURE ®
ENGINEERED POLYOLEFIN MATERIALS
HIGH GLOSS POLYOLEFINS
Automotive body and accessory parts has
long been the domain of metal fabricators
and commercial auto paint operations.
The downside to this approach is the cost
associated with painting parts, both
operational and environmental. Solvay
Engineered Plastics’ Indure ® product delivers
colour-matched high-performance plastic,
eliminating paint. In addition to the
substantial economic benefits realized by
eliminating costly paint operations, Indure ®
delivers significant environmental rewards
via reduced use of caustic paints and lower
energy consumption. The key obstacle in
getting automakers to adopt this change was
delivering a product that performed not only
as well, but lasted as long as painted parts.
The range of Indure products fulfilled all
requirements and is now specified for use in
various applications instead of paint. Notable
among these, a rear tire well for the Ford F-
250 pick-up which delivered the struggling
automaker a saving of 10 dollars per vehicle.
This product line has a significant profit
margin in a new, relatively uncompetitive
environment. Thanks to the work of cross-
functional teams made up of the SBU staff
(sales, marketing, technical support) as well
as our partners’ representatives (from the
automotive and spare parts industry),
we have developed a new, growing business
segment within the highly competitive
auto market.
> Mitesh Shah; Sudhir Bafna; David Edge; Gary Gapa;
David Smith; Matt Binkinz.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
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Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
105017
68
FROM FLUORINATED BY-PRODUCTS THERMAL
TREATMENT TO ANHYDROUS HF RECOVERY:
THE WAY TO SWITCH FROM DISPOSAL COST TO PROFIT
TURNING AN EXPENSE
INTO A PROFIT
Traditionally, manufacturing units that
produce fluorinated specialties are equipped
for the thermal treatment of by-products.
This operation is generally followed by water
washing of the off-gases. The solution
that emerges from this process is then
neutralised, precipitated and the solid
substratum is buried. The demand for increased
capacity of the Spinetta plant (Italy),
and greater cost cutting called for the design
of a new thermal treatment section.
This new treatment hinged on two
technologies: high temperature burning
reactors and recovering AHF (anhydrous
hydrofluoric acid). The solution is a thermal
treatment reactor producing gaseous HF
followed by a sector allowing the recovery
of hydrofluoric acid, on anyhydrous form.
This new process generates significant profits
as it recovers the spent AHF directly in the
process, eliminating the costly process of
neutralizing and land-filling the waste. Full
capacity production was tested with good
results, but the full benefit will only be felt
when Spinetta (Italy) achieves the planned
increase in capacity. The operational costs
are offset by the savings made on the
neutralisation operations. Moreover, important
savings are made on the HF recovered during
the process as well as on the treatment and
maintenance operations. More importantly,
the reduction in solid waste by landfill usage
delivers significant environmental
improvements.
> Antonio Bertani; Paolo Ricci; Federica Rusconi.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
101885
DAY-CARE CENTER ”SOLKIDS” IN HANOVER
CONCILIATE PROFESSIONAL
AND PRIVATE LIFE
More than 500 women are employed
on Solvay’s Hanover site, i.e. over
50% of the total number of employees, a
proportion that is higher than the average of the
other Solvay sites. Among these women are a
large number of highly qualified scientists or
marketing managers. More often than not,
German women take a career break to devote
three to six years to raising their family, even
though this means that it is difficult to maintain
their skills at the required level. One of the
reasons for this is the lack of government
subsidies for nurseries and day-care facilities for
children under the age of six. According to a
survey conducted in 2003, there is a strong
demand among mothers of young children for
nursery and day-care facilities. Management
decided to meet the demands of these women
and one of the buildings on the Hanover site has
been completely rebuilt and equipped to house
childcare facilities that comply fully with health
and safety standards. The day-care center opened
its doors in December 2004 with opening hours
from 7.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. and it has grown with
the children, as in 2006 a floor opened reserved
to “big kids” from the ages of three to six years.
At the end of the first business year the balance
sheet proved that the financial investment
was rewarded: to fill a position with a new
employee costs about EUR 25 000. During
the first year seven employees could return
to their job after only some months of maternity
leave and five employees returned from
home-office employment, i.e. cost saving due
to no need for new employment was higher
than the yearly operation cost of Solkids
which are EUR 170 000 per year.
Thus Solkids became a win-win institution for both:
• mothers, who want to continue to work.
They are very satisfied and motivated;
• Solvay, who is no longer losing its home-grown skills.
> Brigitte Borchers; Detley Hofmann; Cornelia Kuester;
Manuela Martin; Herbert Roehrle; Ulrike Sander;
Petra Schmidt-Graubner; Axel Tegge; Martin Varchmin;
Sven Zymelka.
> BSC GERMANY
Sustainable Development & citizenship

Replicated
Innovations
Initiatives inspired by successfull
innovations from other entities of the
Group or from elsewhere
\ INNOVATION AT AIR LIQUIDE \ Page 70
THE APPLYING PROJECTS \ Page 72
\ Factoring makes North America its first export market \ Chemicals at the heart of our life
\ A new look at an old problem \ 100% added value for the client
\ Mobile revolution: High Tech maintenance in the plant \ Long live the rail!
\ The benefits of open relations with our partners \ Global warehouse management
\ Coming up with a solution for its client \ Open Sesame: the RFID electronic key
> Contact person and team
> Entity submitting the project
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
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Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
70
Like many other companies, Air Liquide has undertaken
a systematic cost reduction exercise. It now wants
to move beyond this with an efficiency and growth
system which draws its strength from human resources
and from knowledge-sharing. Its name is OPAL, short
for Operating Practices at Air Liquide.
Air Liquide
shares good practices
OPAL didn’t happen just like that. First of all it was felt
that successive competitiveness plans had gone as
far as they could. Second, Air Liquide’s geographic
expansion was placing it – despite its world leadership
in its market – in a challenger position in new
and highly competitive territories. All at once this was creating a
huge demand for transfer of knowledge. But whilst new countries
were hungry for knowledge, mature countries poorly understood
the need to share theirs. Finally, and logically enough, customers
were calling for more standardized procedures to guarantee identical
products across the world. Two years ago Air Liquide drew the
conclusion that it had to do things differently, and better. The
response was to initiate a discussion of good – and generally innovative
– practices and how best to transfer them.
From good practices to best practices
The OPAL philosophy can be summarized in four words: gather,
structure, share, implement.
This does not bridle innovation on the ground, which is vital
for creating and maintaining dynamism, but it standardizes
the way it is put into practice and makes it more accessible within
the group’s strongly decentralized culture. A five-stage approach
was introduced:
• international benchmarking to identify good practices;
• structuring practices so they can be communicated and
exchanged horizontally, between entities and between product
lines;
• implementation;
• measuring, consolidating and analysing the results;
• permanent appropriation by entities in a natural and autonomous
fashion.
The project’s success is due to the top management attention
focused on it. A specific investment budget was earmarked for the
purpose. A dedicated 5-person team travels to provide effective
on-site support. Two-monthly reports are submitted to a delegation
of the Executive Committee (Comex). Each country appoints
its own OPAL leader and horizontal ‘communities of practice’
segment the approach into topics: procurement, human resources,
legal, sales etc. In addition, good local practices and recommendations
can become best practices by Comex validating them as
mandatory procedures for the entire group.
“Airliquidized” innovation
Nothing particularly new in all that? Don’t be so sure of it. The
progress lies in the process of collecting, formatting and converting
the various stimuli and impetuses from the grass roots into continuous
improvement of results. This is a never-ending process,
with the underlying system designed to be self-maintaining. A series
of tools – free-of-charge as are the services of the dedicated project

World leader in industrial and medical gases,
Air Liquide is present today in 70 countries
team – are available to those involved, starting with a very concrete
OPAL Intranet site of good and best practices, supported by a
resolutely practical and easy-to-read monthly newsletter.
An initial questionnaire allows employees to effectively self-assess
their needs and identify weaknesses. A summary of existing
solutions is then available. Control and variance tools, real
indicators of good practices, are also standardized. The message has
hit home: the importance of formalizing knowledge lies in having
it permanently available, even when people change jobs.
Finally, and more than anything else, OPAL initiates a continuous
process, included in daily practices and updated annually. The
objective is that in the long term each employee will personally
commit to this process. It is not a question of working more, but
of working differently. Whilst clearly figured objectives are set, the
long-term ambition is to introduce a state of mind, which should
have a snowball effect in terms of good practices. “Airliquidized”
innovation is not an individual matter: it involves all employees. In
today’s global environment, strong innovation policies are vital
for western companies to remain in business. At Air Liquide, this
need has given rise to a project management culture, including
the definition of good practices, standardized in order to be
shared better. •
Replicated Innovations
A very similar partner
Alocal anchoring, an international
development that includes
taking positions in emerging
countries with high development
potential, internal growth, but also
external growth as a function of
targeted and profitable opportunities,
a presence in pharmaceuticals and in
specialty chemicals.
Add to this a lot of human respect,
expressed by a strong commitment
to sustainable development and
environmental conservation, a culture
of responsibility towards both
employees and shareholders,
long-term customer care, and all
that for more than 100 years...
Solvay? No, Air Liquide. This company
was created in 1902 at the initiative
of an entrepreneur and a young
engineer who had developed a process
for liquefying air and producing
oxygen far more effectively than
the technologies of the time. Since
then, Air Liquide has expanded and
developed its expertise across the
whole range of industrial and medical
gases, a field in which it is now the
world leader. Air Liquide is present
today in 70 countries, has
36 000 employees and operates eight
R&D centres. For the future it is
betting on its strong innovation
capacity, considered no more nor less
than a focal point of development.
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Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
NAFTA FACTORING
FACTORING MAKES
NORTH AMERICA
ITS FIRST EXPORT MARKET
When a formula works, why not apply it
elsewhere?
This logic is partly what triggered CICC, the
internal bank and centraliser of the Group’s
commercial flows, to set up factoring
management in the USA (NAFTA region)
now that it has proven its value for the Group’s
European subsidiaries.
Factoring consists of centralising all the financial
movements linked to the commercial activity:
follow through of invoices, cashing of
payments, risk management. Up to date, each
American, Canadian or Mexican company of the
Group managed these aspects of the customer
relationships separately. The project sets out to
centralise this activity in Houston (USA) for all
the subsidiaries of the NAFTA region.
At the service of the SBUs, which thus gain a
competitive edge, centralised factoring will
make it possible to get to know the customers
better, to manage the consolidated positions,
to reduce the commercial risk, to optimise the
working capital, while reducing the processing
costs and ensuring a simpler and therefore less
expensive maintenance of the systems. The
amounts in circulation are quite considerable:
two billion dollars of turnover on which we can
reduce the late payments and accelerate
the financial flows: it is a winning solution that
the CICC is soon set to export to Asia as well.
> Jean-François Caillol; Anne-Marie Bruylants;
Edgar Case; Heather Haidik.
> BSC CICC
72
104985
105235
ESSENTIALITY OF CHEMICALS
CHEMICALS AT THE HEART
OF OUR LIFE
The “Essentiality of Chemicals” project
is a new way of promoting the social
and economic value of our “essential products”
portfolio. This is pursuit through the
organisation of « all in one » events: scientific
debates, events underlining the advantages but
also the limits of the progress of technology via
original initiatives around a long-term dialogue
with representatives of the academic, scientific
and public world, NGO, consumer associations
or the press. This new method of dialogue,
which sets out to be authentic and constructive,
has already taken the form of a symposium,
bringing together in Milan (Italy)
representatives of the authorities, the university
and the press, or visits of the innovative
activities developed in our sites, or even
training workshops for non specialists about
the basic notions of toxicology.
Although essential for our quality of life, our
health, our food, as well as for the role it plays
at the heart of a significant socio-economic
activity, chemistry is nevertheless mistrusted, as
it is misunderstood. A considerable challenge
consists on facilitating the access to the
scientific data necessary for the accurate
understanding of the subject. Certain people
and entities we contacted have accepted to
take up the challenge by contributing, together
with Solvay, to the creation of the independent
NGO GreenFacts (www.greenfacts.org).
The latter publishes, in several languages
and, above all, in a layman’s language, the
summaries of the most recognised international
reports in the field of health and environment
which often involve chemistry related issues.
> Giuseppe Malinverno; Jacques de Gerlache;
Fabio Novelli.
> CC COM & PA
101509
EROSION FREE DISTRIBUTION FOR
OXYCHLORINATION REACTORS
A NEW LOOK
AT AN OLD PROBLEM
The oxychlorination reactors used in the
VCM production process are traditionally
equipped with metallic nozzles that operate
in extreme conditions and suffer
considerably from the effects of erosion.
They are given a lifetime of two years,
during which they undergo a degradation
process that leads to a reduction in efficiency.
Rheinberg (Germany) wanted to put a stop
to this situation and launched a creative
project with an external company and the
local University. Together, they designed new
nozzles. In practice, problems arose with the
fixing of these nozzles onto the reactor grid,
which had to be solved. As the results were
excellent (2003), Tavaux/France, then
Jemeppe/Belgium (2005) adopted the new
design, after making a few modifications.
The nozzles perfectly play their role in the
continuous distribution of the reagents
at the heart of the process and have thus
increased the yield of the VCM units. Their
development has continued on the new
oxychlorination lines in Santo Andre (Brazil)
and Zandvliet (Belgium). This innovation,
whose advantages are very tangible in terms
of maintenance and process optimization, is
today considered as a Solvay standard.
> Frank Vanrompuy; Anne-France Berger; Paul Degraeve;
Bernhard Hogenkamp; Patrick Joubert; Daniel Kinet;
Luigi Mestrone; Jean-Bernard Savoye; Norbert Schmitz;
Heinz-Theo Temath; Wolfgang Ziebarth.
> SBU VINYLS

104553
INERGY PRODUCTION SYSTEM (IPS): REPLICATION
OF THE TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM FOR WASTE
ELIMINATION AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
100% ADDED VALUE
FOR THE CLIENT
The goal of a car parts manufacturer such as
Inergy is to supply the right parts, with the
right quality, at the right time, to the right
client, along with the maximum dose of added
value. This goal has taken concrete shape with
the IPS (Inergy Production System). The
ambition that underpins this approach is that
of increasing the company’s competitiveness,
making it an unbeatable supplier at
international level.
It is therefore no coincidence that the IPS
promoters have taken as their inspiration a car
maker that has outstripped the accumulated
profits of Ford, Chrysler and GM, that claims not
to have aged at all in 50 years and that is well
on its way to becoming the number one
worldwide : Toyota.
Like the car maker, Inergy assumed that it
would only achieve its aim if it brought about a
critical change to the way it manages the
material and immaterial flows in order to create
an uninterrupted movement of added value for
its products, day after day. IPS is a standardised
and replicable way of creating added value
currents on all the sites, from the project launch
phase to all the stages of its logistical chain.
This complex and comprehensive process needs:
• the full backing of the employees, regardless
of where they are based;
• the promotion of a culture that values
short-term change;
• a permanent critical overview of the entire
value chain;
• the emergence of a future-looking global
vision;
• stabilisation before moving on to
standardisation and sharing.
> Walter Ceglia; Fortunato Antolin; Thierry Debruille;
Philip Vanderstraeten; Greg Pothoff;
Patrick Tordeur.
> SBU INERGY
104717
INTEGRATED PLANT MAINTENANCE
AND INSPECTIONS WITH MOBILE INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY AND RADIOFREQUENCY
IDENTIFICATION
MOBILE REVOLUTION:
HIGH TECH MAINTENANCE
IN THE PLANT
Maintaining a plant in good working order
often means setting off on a long trek
to control the thousands of installations on the
site, laden down with a mountain of documents
and plans to ensure compliance. Imagine all the
handwritten notes that must then be typed out
into a file and consolidated with other
information during the days of inspection.
A source of multiple errors that can prove
expensive for the company. Hence the idea of
inventing a mobile industrial system integrated
into the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to
provide all the maintenance data throughout
the plant and not only in the offices. The results
of the regular inspections are therefore entered
by the agent into his industrial PDA, which
communicates with the integrated SAP system
where all the maintenance processes are
registered and updated in real time. A High Tech
solution that is already up and running in three
industrial sites: in Tavaux (France) for the
inspection of 1 500 luminous safety installations
immediately detected thanks to the radio
frequencies identification technology (RFID),
in Devnya (Bulgary) for all of the maintenance
operations in the plant, detected during the
inspections, and in Rheinberg (Germany) for the
automation of the maintenance of 5 000 engine
equipment. Many other projects are queuing
up, demonstrating the benefits of this
approach: better reliability of data, permanent
availability, reduction in the risks of error, direct
electronic input…
> Frank Mueller; Michel Adant; Jacques André;
Dominique Boireau; Jean-Noël Daloz; Norbert
Hussmann; Dragomir Iliev; Miroslav Lorinkov;
Daniel Paul; Yves Plagny; Martin Radev;
Thierry Renault; Thomas Wortmann.
> CC SIS
Replicated Innovations
104950
SANDS – SODA ASH NEW DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
LONG LIVE THE RAIL!
How to avoid the damaging impact of the
increase in transport costs and avoid
losing faraway clients who are placed at a
disadvantage because of the distance
between you? By combining rail and roads,
of course! In fact, the idea is to put the heavy
goods vehicles on the train, just like
passengers put their cars on the train to cross
the Channel. The project also sets out to
keep products in bulk containers close to
isolated or remote clients. A logistics study
has been carried out with an external
consultant and a carrier in Italy. The mission
of the consultant was to develop the
necessary links between the various partners
in the different regions. The carrier, Treni
Italia, is entrusted with the traction of the
carriages. Jointly, the two partners put
together the links in the chain in certain well
defined regions. This new organization is an
excellent response to the challenges facing
Solvay: the taxes on heavy goods vehicles in
Austria and in Germany, which entered into
force in January 2005, the restriction of
driver’s time on the road to 40 hours a week
and the increase in the fuel price. The project
is up and running since January 2005 in Pisa,
Bari and Cuneo (Italy). SANDS is a replicated
innovation originally developed by SolVin.
> Giorgio Barsacchi; Giuseppe Crippa; Bernadette
François; Patrick Balletto.
> SBU SODA ASH
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
73

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
101300
74
A NANO PARTICLE SEED LATEX
AT THE SERVICE OF PVDC
THE BENEFITS OF OPEN
RELATIONS
WITH OUR PARTNERS
Meeting the strong demand for stepped
up production on the pharmaceutical
blister market and on the food packaging
markets is a priority of the SBU. The chosen
solution must clearly be backed up by a
guarantee of innocuousness, as the PVDC is
in direct contact with the medicines and with
food. However, our production was suffering
stability and conservation problems that
meant that they did not meet the
requirements of the Asian and American
markets. The originality of this project lies in
having found, thanks to our partner BASF,
a technology successfully used in the
production of acrylics and then discussing
and transposing this technology to the PVDC
dispersions production. The solution was the
fruit of our cooperation with the BASF
researchers, who helped to develop a nano
particle seed latex, based on an acrylic
monomer and approved for contact with the
food and medicines.
The product immediately demonstrated a
higher stability. Increased productivity is
to be expected as well as improved control
capacity, which is one of the keys
to obtaining satisfactory results on the
high-speed coating lines, on which our
development depends.
> Yves Vanderveken; Peter Claassen; Benoît Faye;
Diego Lancksweert; Roland Offner; Gilbert Pauly.
> SBU SPECIALTY POLYMERS
104100
FORK LIFT CONTROL SYSTEM WITH WIRELESS
TECHNOLOGY FOR REAL TIME ACCESS TO SAP
GLOBAL WAREHOUSE
MANAGEMENT
Avoiding time wasting in stock
management, ensuring that the client
receives what he asked for without error
and, should an error arise, having all
the necessary information at hand to remedy
the problem as quickly as possible. Those
were the aims that the Solvay Barium team
in Bad Hönningen (Germany) set out to
achieve with the implementation
of the wireless warehouse management
control system. It was finally made possible
thanks to a barcode affixed on each pallet.
However, it also called for a sound
coordination in order to perfectly control the
parallel movement of the materials and of
the information. Today, the Bad Hönningen
warehouse is saving EUR 120 000 per annum
with its new system (an investment
of EUR 200 000)! The elevators are now
operating automatically without human
intervention and their activity is completely
controlled by its own programme, integrated
into SAP: goodbye the manual and tedious
management of long lists of references
on paper. All the information is permanently
available in real time: what is in stock
(and where exactly), what has been ordered,
what has been dispatched, what has been
invoiced, what has been paid! With the new
system, there are fewer elevators, fewer
staff in the warehouse, less paper wasted
and less time wasted. The system is already
available in several languages and with some
slight adjustments, nothing prevents it being
applied to other activities.
> Albert Kruft; Klaus Steinbruecker; Norbert Weber.
> SBU BARIUM-STRONTIUM

104592
MODIFIED HYDROFLUORIC ACID (MHF):
A CUSTOMER ORIENTED PROJECT WITH FOCUS ON
FUTUR REPLICATION POTENTIAL
COMING UP WITH
A SOLUTION FOR ITS CLIENT
Valero is the leading refiner of petroleum
products in North America. Based in San
Antonio, Texas, the company has 22.000
employees. The environmental authorities
have required that its Wilmington, California
refinery change its process in order to reduce
the impact of an accidental hydrogen
fluoride release. Valero expects this
requirement to be extended to its other
refineries in the near future, due to a recent
incident at a BP refinery in Deer Park, Texas.
Valero is eager to take a proactive stance
and is advocating the use of the ReVap
process (a process developed by Conoco
Phillips, which utilizes a Modified
Hydrofluoric Acid (MHF). An additive in the
MHF significantly lowers the risks associated
with handling anhydrous hydrogen fluoride
by reducing its vapour pressure and the
formation of aerosols. Solvay agreed to
design and build a plant that would make it
possible to produce and deliver the MHF
mixture from its Juarez, Mexico facility.
Valero is providing the necessary capital, but
Solvay Fluor Mexico will own, manage and
maintain the site. Solvay Fluorides has been
a long-time partner of Valero and this
proposal was absolutely necessary to nurture
this important relationship. In the five year
contract that binds Solvay and Valero,
provisions have been made for Solvay to also
be allowed to supply MHF to other clients, in
return for a payment to Valero. This increases
the potential profitability of the project.
Also, the strong probability that Valero will
continue to adapt its other refineries puts
Solvay in an ideal position to continue
this partnership.
> Mark Looney; Tom Clark; Steve Dimino; Patricia Hill;
Alexis Thoelen.
> SBU FLUOR
105282
KEYS ELECTRONIC SHOWCASE
OPEN SESAME:
THE RFID ELECTRONIC KEY
Go on, admit it, you have already found
yourself at home frantically looking
for your keys. You’re never sure that you’ll find
them but can always count on a good deal
of frustration and time wasting. Imagine the
proportions this kind of search takes on in a
plant, where hundreds of persons use shared
keys every day on different installations.
The time had come to bring “Open Sesame” into
the electronic age, using the latest technologies,
adapted to an industrial site: the RFID (Radio
Frequency Identification) electronic key. The
concept is simple: each key is associated with a
“RFID” ring (transponder) that is inserted into an
electronic showcase. When a key is required, the
person in question identifies him/herself via
his/her badge, thus opens the electronic
showcase, can take the key and return it in the
same way. This information is automatically
registered in the system, becoming available so
it can be consulted in a network using several
software (Intranet, ERP, Simba etc), according
to the targeted field of application.
The applications are varied and make it possible
to save tens of thousands of Euros on each
industrial site, whether for the management of
a plant’s car fleet, of the meeting rooms or even
the secure loading of trucks on the silos stocking
critical materials, etc. Success is on the cards: the
innovation has already been applied in Italy in
Rosignano for the company cars and the general
warehouse, in Poteginori for the work engines
and it is currently being evaluated in Jemeppe
(Belgium) for the activation of the keys allowing
the loading of the PVC silos. To be continued...
> Domenico Serafino; Riccardo Donati;
Angelo Esposito; Antonio-Michele Giustino;
Riccardo Sacchi; Roberto Tamberi.
> CC SIS
Replicated Innovations
J U L Y 2 0 0 6
75

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