Envigas: sustainable biocarbon

“We need to find solutions. Otherwise, you just give up. If we do nothing, it will definitely go wrong. This is our contribution,” says Lars-Gunnar Almryd, CEO of Envigas. “When you grow old, looking back, you’ll ask yourself, did I try to contribute? That’s one of the drivers for me. I think it’s exciting to find new solutions that can contribute to the big picture as well as the small scale.”

Based in northern Sweden, Envigas is a large-scale producer of biocarbon, helping the shift towards a more environmentally friendly steel industry. Biocarbon is a product that can be used in metallurgic applications, as raw material for modern batteries or to clean water and air, or as a carbon sink and soil improvement.

What Envigas does is use pyrolysis plants to turn organic residuals like sawdust, wood shavings or wooden pellets into biocarbon and energy. This helps the metallurgical industry replace fossil-fuels with bio-based products. Apart from biocarbon, the company also produces energy-rich pyrolysis gas, and is looking to make better use of the heat released in the processing. “With the help of our products, customers will be able to significantly reduce their CO2 emissions,” he adds.

Looking ahead, the team wants to expand and broaden the scope of its activity: “Now we want to scale,” Lars-Gunnar adds. “We want to be relevant and meet market needs in this segment, to build on our knowledge and experience. We can see that there are also other applications out there and other industries that are wanting to decarbonise and are considering biocarbon. So, we’re looking for new production plants to increase volumes.”

To finance this growth, Envigas secured a loan from Norrlandsfonden, guaranteed by the EIF through the European Guarantee Fund. “A lot of what we have been doing has not happened before. We face challenges that we have to solve, but we build competence and learn. I really enjoy this because you learn a lot through new challenges you could never foresee.”

Along with Envigas, the region of northern Sweden is seeing booming industrial activity, with the development of the battery industry and the plants for H2 green steel as well, all of which are keen to push the greening agenda. “There’s a lot happening here relating to sustainability. It’s really exciting to be geographically here. In terms of the sustainability agenda, I think that all stakeholders in this ecosystem need to support each other to get things happening. That’s what we are trying to do.”

Location: Skellefteå, Västerbotten County, Sweden

Financial Intermediary: Norrlandsfonden

SME: Envigas (Sweden)

Sector: energy

Number of employees: 20

Financing purpose: growth, expansion

EU financing: EGF

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Sweden, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/se/index.htm