08 Sep 2020

The Umeå based company tackles pollutions

SpinChem from Umeå has nine of the ten biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world as paying customers. On top of that they are one their way to solve the problem with radioactive water from nuclear plants and similar businesses. It is exciting times, to say the least, for SpinChem which have to employ more people to be able to handle the development.
- Our goal is to create benefit for the customers, find cleaner processes and improve the world, says Emil Byström CEO.

It is not modest goals at SpinChem – and rightfully so. The innovation is to create a flow from liquid to solid material and the solid material can be removed, added or change the property of the liquid.

– There has always been an ambition to make a difference and in combination with a big interest in technology in general and in chemistry you can do so much more. We see climate change, but I also think that humanity can solve this with collaborations, innovations and new ways of working, says Emil who has a PhD in Chemistry.

The product is a rotating bed reactor which contains spheres of a special chemical composition – if the liquid passes the packed bed of spheres, the reactor can absorb pollutants from the liquid.

Can clear nuclear bomb waste

The reactor can take any chemical function and process any liquid – if you put in hop cones you can brew beer, if you put in nuclear waste you can purify it from caesium.

– We have developed the products and the company from lab and research stage to create benefits such as water purification but also in the food and pharmaceutical industry where we create cleaner, greener, more environmentally friendly and energy efficient processes, Emil says.

One of the most difficult and demanding assignments you can take on is the treatment of radioactive waste where SpinChem has customers on three different continents who already have or are in the process of installing their systems.

– There has been an enormous amount of waste since the 1940s and 50s that has been stored and buried in tanks around the world since the development of the atomic bomb. Previously, there has been a fear to touch it and now there is a fear to do nothing since the tanks are breaking down. Instead of taking the liquid out from the tank we can process it inside the tank, which is a great advantage, says Emil and adds:

– Nuclear power industry is a highly conservative industry that is surrounded by high security risk minimization. We have to take every precaution available in order not to fail.

Fast and flexible organisation

SpinChem has been around for over ten years. Emil states that it has been a long development to get to where you are today and it was actually required that their first product, a catalyst, would break down for the current reactor to see the light of day.

– Since then we have developed it to a whole other level with functions and possibilities in an much bigger scale.

SpinChem has lab facilities at Uminova Science Park but also an industrial premise of 300 sqm where the development of the industrial products takes place. The advantage is their fast-paced and flexible organization of four people who see external circumstances and adapt accordingly.

– We can achieve a lot in a much shorter time than others do. We can have an idea in the morning, draw a solution, then 3D print and test in the lab before we send the production blueprints to a subcontractor in the evening. We can also simulate and calculate before we sit down and build. So, we have the whole chain in house and that is a strength, says Emil.

Polluted rivers

SpinChem is now also focusing on other industries – for example the textile industry and cotton, which is a major environmental culprit with the billions of jeans being manufactured annually being the biggest problem. Jeans are the garment that causes the most negative environmental impact in the entire fashion industry through the dyeing and the chemicals that are used during production. Emil and SpinChem want to change that.

– The colouring of jeans has led to lots of rivers polluted with blue jeans dye. In China, 70 percent of all rivers are polluted, and I do not think that is reasonable. We have a technology that can purify water before it comes out into the rivers and we can make a big effort here. We need to hire more people to be able to handle the incoming requests and the continued development, he says.

SpinChem has sales in more than 30 countries, over 100 customers and the order value are constantly increasing.

– Before, we were only able to work with water purification with a one litre liquid volume – now we are up to 85,000 litres, i.e. 85 cubic meters, in industrial water purification and that is when can make a difference, he says.

They handle everything in house with sales and marketing, but now they need more employees both on consulting basis and employees.

– We need to find the right person who shares the same passion as the rest of us and is genuinely interested in developing her or himself and our products. We have not sold any systems to Antarctica and Africa, but otherwise we are on all continents. I actually have a new contact in Antarctica, so it is not far off, Emil says.