From July 24th to 26th, the second quarterly meeting of 2024 of Esseco Industrial was…
![](https://www.altairchemical.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Altair-Chemical-sustainability-report.png)
The RE-BORN project has concluded, enabling the revitalization of the Altair Chemical plant in Pieve Vergonte.
The initiatives related to the “Relaunch Electrolysis-Building Optimized Rumianca New Site” program, initiated in 2019 under the auspices of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, have been completed.
This has allowed the transformation, in record time, of an industrial site that was becoming obsolete and was in constant decline, likely headed for the definitive shutdown of its productions, into a modern smart factory, strongly oriented towards environmental sustainability and with concrete prospects for job growth.
The project RE-BORN had three developmental goals:
- Study of new production processes and search for new technological and plant solutions;
- Development of innovative production processes for the production of Chlor-Alkali and related technologies: design, implementation, and validation tests;
- Development of innovative production processes in the field of aromatic compounds: design, technological implementation, and validation tests.
These initiatives represented the backbone, in terms of research and development, of the rebirth process of Pieve Vergonte, transforming an outdated and impactful plant with a mercury system into a membrane-based one, highly innovative and technological, surpassing the standards of the Best Available Techniques (BAT).
The RE-BORN project saw investments of over 11.7 million euros in research and development by Esseco Industrial, with 3 million euros supported by financing from the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (2.69 million euros) and the Piedmont Region (351.7 thousand euros) for research and development. These research and development projects accompanied the over 50 million euros invested in facilities at the Pieve Vergonte site.
This enabled the plant’s turnover to increase from 30 to 100 million euros, in line with increasing energy self-sufficiency with zero emissions and a reduction in the carbon footprint. A success story of the Italian chemical industry.