Swedish Exergy on site at LignoCity

Publicerat 12 June, 2023

In the beginning of April this year, the Gothenburg-based company Swedish Exergy moved in at LignoCity in Bäckhammar. Now a smaller pilot steam dryer is being set up to give customers the opportunity to dry different materials on a smaller scale and to test how the steam in the dryer affects the product and what can be scaled up.

Swedish Exergy started in the late 1970s and has ever since developed and sold steam dryers (ExergyPSSD®) which are now used over large parts of the world. Examples of areas of use are drying of biomass – reuse of wood fibers, for example from thinning material from the forest or twigs and branches that are handed in at recycling stations, paper sludge – a residual product from paper manufacturing, sludge from sewage treatment plants, as well as residual products from alcohol production and textile fibers from clothing. The dried material can then be converted into, for example, pellets for burning or animal feed.

“The steam dryer is extremely energy efficient and consumes only fifteen percent of the energy compared to a traditional dryer”, says Manish Verma, Business Development Manager at Swedish Exergy. “We have many customers who want to test drying different materials and keep the dryer running as much as possible. We also plan to have a person in place full-time as soon as possible to be responsible for the operation.”

The dryer in Bäckhammar is called a pilot dryer not only because it gives Swedish Exergy’s customers the opportunity to test drying different materials on a smaller scale, but also because it provides a basis for development of both the dryer itself and the work process, which needs to be adapted based on the specific material which is entered.

Through the collaboration with LignoCity, researchers at RISE also have the opportunity to use the pilot dryer, which is approximately 12 meters high and has the capacity to evaporate 250 kilograms per hour, while the dryers that are often used on a large scale are 45 meters high and have a capacity of several hundred tons.

Business hub with a focus on resource efficiency

A goal within LignoCity is to create a hub in Bäckhammar for companies with a focus on biomass and renewables. In addition to physical facilities such as access to compressed air, cooling water, steam, labs and meeting rooms, opportunities are also offered to take part in LignoCity’s and RISE’s network and infrastructure.

“Our basic idea is to help innovative small companies to be able to scale up their operations,” says Robert Gustavsson, project manager and site manager at LignoCity, who hopes that two more companies will take up space in the premises in 2023. “We like to see companies investing in energy-efficient solutions and recycling, and through our large network we can offer, among other things, help in finding funding, matching customer contacts, collaboration with researchers, and evaluation.”