LignoCity became an international meeting place at Lixea’s inauguration
Krisztina Kovacs-Schreiner, CEO at Lexia, happily greeted all the gest to the pilot plant at LignoCity to celebrate a big steppingstone.

LignoCity became an international meeting place at Lixea’s inauguration

Publicerat 10 June, 2022

In May, nearly 70 guests participated in the inauguration of Lixea’s pilot plant for biomass fractionation at LignoCity.  The event brought together key players from across Europe.

Lixea is a company with an innovative biomass fractionation process using low-cost ionic liquids. The technology enables biomass to be extracted and contributes to lowering the use of fossil materials. For about a year Lixea has been working hard to scale up the production at LignoCity’s premises in Bäckhammar, Sweden.

The process holds great possibilities in a global market and is of great interest to many. So, when the pilot plant was ready, many international guests gathered at LignoCity for the inauguration on 24 May.

“It is unbelievable what we have accomplished. We started with a ten-milliliters test tube and now we stand here with a full-scale test facility,” says Florence Gschwend, who leads the research behind the process.

She joined the celebration on a screen by link. However, Lixeas CEO, Krisztina Kovacs-Schreiner, happily greeted all the guests at the pilot plant. And she was very happy with the outcome of the day.

Ongoing journey

The innovation first started in the laboratory at Imperial College London and became a company in 2017. Now, Lixea has a production facility ready to produce a lot more biobased material than what a ten-millimeter test tube can hold.

Lixea has undeniably come a long way since its college days, but the journey is still ongoing.

“Our focus for the next six months is to get the process going and being operational. Taking samples and doing analyses. The next step is to look more closely at how we can scale up and find investors and partners,” says Jennica Ivarsson, Chief Operating Officer at Lixea.

More space at the facility

The inauguration was a big milestone for Lixea. The celebration gathered people from all over Europe, who in one way or another have supported Lixea along the way, such as companies, entrepreneurs, networks, and other start-up companies. The local support for startups is strong and was a contributing factor when Lixea chose to establish its pilot in Sweden and specifically at LignoCity.

” LignoCity offers industrial infrastructure, rooms, laboratories, and much more. LignoCity is a hub and network. We can provide support through knowledge and communication. It is great to have Lixea here and we have room for more companies,” says Robert Gustavsson, project manager at Rise, Research Institutes of Sweden, and LignoCity.