Ecohelix planning to build advanced production facility entirely from wood
Biotechnology scale-up company, Ecohelix is partnering with Sweco, Eurocon, and AFRY AB to create a state-of-the-art production facility, entirely from wood. The new facility planned for Örnsköldsvik, Sweden will produce 15,000 tonnes of renewable wood-based polymeric products per annum.
This first biopolymer production plant will be integrated into Domsjö Fabriker´s pulp mill in Örnsköldsvik. Biopolymers have a wide range of applications as sustainable components in paper chemicals, packaging and cosmetics products.
“As the Ecohelix production unit in Domsjö will be built completely from wood, we are using the same natural material in the construction, as we use as a raw material in our production”, says Oskar Schmidt, Ecohelix Chief Technology Officer. “We are connecting Ecohelix production directly to the ‘heart’ of Domsjö pulp mill. The starting point is that we cannot negatively affect the core process of Domsjö, which sets very high requirements for the production construction.”
Merve Olsson Sarr, Head of Sweco's Industrial Structural Engineers states that the entire wood industry’s use of advancing technologies and tools has made construction of novel wooden constructions like this possible.
“When we were assigned to the planning work of Ecohelix production site, we wanted to think creatively and innovatively with climate-smart materials, also because Ecohelix is itself a company that works with sustainable materials. We decided to build industrial building entirely from wood, not only the walls and roof, but also the frame and supporting constructions”, Merve Olsson Sarr continues.
The Ecohelix project represents a significant step towards a more sustainable future in the pulp and paper industry and will also demonstrate how the utilization of wood can lead to circular and sustainable outcomes in industrial production.
Oskar Schmidt, Chief Technology Officer at Ecohelix
Email: oskar@ecohelix.se
Tel: +46 702 802840
www.ecohelix.se
About Ecohelix
Ecohelix is a biotechnology and engineering company. Our technology is an enzymatic process and filtering to create high performing polymers. Ecohelix biopolymers can replace oil and food-based components in packaging, construction and chemical industry formulations, creating products which decrease the emissions in our society.
Ecohelix is co-funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union. Company has also received funding from the Bio Based Industries (BBI) Joint Undertaking (JU) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 837866.
www.ecohelix.se
About Sweco
Sweco plans and designs the sustainable communities and cities of the future. Together with our clients and the collective knowledge of our 18,500 architects, engineers, and other specialists, we co-create solutions to address urbanisation, capture the power of digitalisation, and make our societies more sustainable. Sweco is Europe’s leading engineering and architecture consultancy, with sales of approximately SEK 23 billion (EUR 2.2 billion). The company is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. www.swecogroup.com.
