New industrial group for intensified ethanol development
Turnover for 2006 is estimated at around 2 billion Swedish crowns and the group has 120 employees.
The group comprises four subsidiaries: SEKAB E-Technology, SEKAB Industrial Development, SEKAB Biofuels & Chemicals and SEKAB International. The group is being led by a newly formed management team with Per Carstedt as CEO.
The new group is already a leading actor on the European ethanol market, says Per Carstedt. And we enjoy a unique lead as regards the industrial processes used for cellulose-based bio-fuel production. The new technology for cellulose ethanol is being developed at a research and pilot facility in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, in cooperation with several Swedish universities and research institutes. SEKAB is already an established and respected international company name.
Picture of the executives
Unique lead
SEKAB’ assignment is to create the conditions required for and actively participate in sustainable transport systems for the future by means of bio-fuel with long-term sustainability.
The new group organisation gives us better opportunities to both supply the fast growing ethanol market and to further industrialise the lead in knowledge over which we preside in production processes for second generation bio-fuels, asserts Carstedt.
We are now looking at increased internationalisation of operations at the same time as we are technologically and organisationally ready to build the world’s first demo facility for wood-based ethanol. Group research is concentrated under SEKAB E-technology, where continued work with the ethanol pilot project is of great importance to the further development of processes.
In parallel with this we are planning two more bio energy refineries having an ethanol capacity 500 to 700 times higher than the existing pilot facility. Other products besides ethanol will be produced at these bio refineries: electricity, lignin pellets, district heating and high-grade chemicals.
The bio-energy refineries produce a total energy efficiency of over 70 percent. This is far higher that today’s conventional ethanol technology or, for example, electricity production based on coal and uranium where energy efficiency is around 35 percent. Construction of the first demonstration facility is scheduled to start at the end of 2007.
Industrialisation
New system solutions for a sustainable future are in increasing demand and more and more people are looking at ”green technology” as one of the fastest industrial growth areas of the future.
Renewable fuel can help to keep private cars, trucks and buses on the road, reduce dependence on an increasingly unpredictable oil market and considerably reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The cutting edge technology demonstrated at the SEKAB pilot facility in Örnsköldsvik is getting a lot of international attention, says Per Carstedt. Insight into the urgency and magnitude of the challenges facing us and the industrial potential of the renewable fuels of the new generation are now rapidly growing all over the world.
The major shareholders of the SEKAB group are power companies in Skellefteå, Umeå and Örnsköldsvik, the Länsförsäkringar Västerbotten insurance company, the OK Ekonomisk Förening (profit-making association) via Norrtull Energi AB and EcoDevelopment AB.
The SEKAB group is run from the Örnsköldsvik head office, which also functions as a base for the subsidiaries. Twenty key personnel have been hired by the group and recruitment is continuing. Main tasks and management of subsidiaries are:
SEKAB E-Technology
Development of industrial processes for cellulose based fuel in bio refineries.
Managing director Gunnar Fransson, new deputy managing director and group research manager, Sune Wännström
SEKAB Industrial Development
Industrial development and construction of the first cellulose ethanol combines. Managing director Jan Lindstedt
SEKAB International
Project organisation for international industrial development
Managing director Stig-Gunnar Eriksson
SEKAB BioFuels & Chemical
Supply and refining of bio-ethanol as fuel and chemicals
Managing director Stig-Gunnar Eriksson, new deputy managing director Anders Fredriksson
New financial director for the SEKAB group, Pia Berglund.
New chairmann of the board for SEKAB, Jan-Olof Backman.
SEKAB shall continue to support and maintain close cooperation with the regional and international development networks BioFuel Region and BioAlcohol Fuel Foundation.
Contact:
Per Carstedt, Jan Lindstedt, Stig Gunnar Eriksson or Gunnar Fransson on
+46 (0)660-75 800.
Phone: +46 660 758 00 Fax: +46 660 549 03 info@sekab.com