Plant on a Truck

Janssen and InOpSys reuse materials in the production of medicines

Janssen: “We manufacture the active ingredients of important and innovative medicines at our chemical production site in Geel, which obviously generates streams of residual waste. We looked for a way to reuse it, and with our 'Plant on a Truck’ solution, we’re now working hard on recycling chemicals. Thanks to this new approach, we save about 500 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, and we can recycle about 100 tonnes of chemicals per year. Plant on a Truck, an innovative concept in which we treat process water on site in a mobile treatment plant, allows us to reuse useful materials, eliminate toxic components, and purify the water. At the moment, for example, we use this method to extract zinc from the process water of a type 2 diabetes medicine. This zinc is then used once more in production, so it’s a textbook example of the circular economy in practice!"

Janssen’s Plant on a Truck won the 'Belgian Business Award for the Environment 2017 - 2018’, organised by the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (VBO - Verbond van Belgische Ondernemingen).