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.
Ecohelix is a biotechnology and engineering company.
Sweco is Europe’s leading engineering and architecture consultancy,
