Axens Catalysts & Adsorbents Business Unit manufactures and sells catalysts & adsorbents globally for Axens. From challenges to come to Axens values, Axens Executive VP Patrick Sarrazin answers 3 questions in a short interview.
Please introduce yourself and your Business Unit
Hi, I’m Patrick Sarrazin and I’m the Executive Vice President of Axens Catalysts & Adsorbents Business Unit. Our Business Unit manufactures and sells catalysts & adsorbents globally for Axens.
A catalyst is a material that facilitates chemical reactions: with a catalyst, a chemical reaction occurs with far less energy and higher productivity than without a catalyst. I like to say that catalysis is the “magic” that brings A LOT of added value to many industries. Most of the goods we are using every day have been manufactured with the help of at least one catalyst! It is huge. Catalysts are key to energy savings or to limiting pollutant emissions. Axens also manufactures adsorbents. They trap any kind of impurities to clean up air and water.
At Axens, we operate seven production sites, and we deliver more than 60,000 tons of catalysts and adsorbents to our customers every year. I am proud to say that 90% of the world’s refineries operate with at least one of our products.
What are the challenges to come for the catalyst market?
The catalysts industry keeps anticipating fundamental trends in the energy sector and future needs of the Oil & Gas market. Two main drivers are of prime importance today:
– First, reducing energy consumption in chemical transformations,
– Second, producing cleaner fuels. Axens Catalysts & Adsorbents Business Unit has been particularly successful over the past years by introducing two new lines of catalysts. Our Impulse™ and Symphony™ lines have added hundreds of industrial references in only a few years.
Another challenge for our industry is to anticipate the global energy trend toward natural gas and biogas as a cost effective provider of electricity. Axens supplies adsorbents able to remove traces of mercury present naturally in the gas streams, allowing safer and cleaner use of this energy.
Last but not least, nowadays, the use of every energy resource has to be optimized. Axens provides its customers with an integrated service offer called Orchestra™ to manage their entire pool of catalysts, enhancing reuse and recycling of materials. This definitely deserves further development during the next decade.
“Strive for excellence”, “Passion”, “Innovation”, “Succeed Together”: Which Axens value do you consider as your motto? Why?
All of them but for different reasons.
“Excellence” because for decades the continuous improvement in the performance of catalysts and adsorbents has been inherent to this industry.
“Passion” because most people I have met during my career are really passionate about their job, and they made it happen.
This brings me to my third point: “Innovation”, a key factor for both breakthrough inventions and continuous improvement on a daily basis, driven by research and development teams.
Lastly, “Succeed together”, of course! Because our industry combines multiple talents and various specialties to add value to our customers, from product design to their proper use at their plants.
Because we only succeed if our customers succeed!
