Spinnova pilot factory line completed successfully

26 Dec '18

2 min read

Courtesy: Spinnova

Spinnova has successfully completed building its new pilot factory line in Finland. The pilot is an important step on Spinnova’s journey towards large volume commercial production of the world’s most sustainable fibre in the future. The industrial scale line was built over this fall, and the project was completed last week, on schedule in only 3.5 months.

The maximum capacity of the pilot line is 100-400 tons per annum. Scaling its fibre technology innovation to a large industrial pilot scale is a major milestone for the company, founded four years ago.

"I couldn’t be prouder of our team and contractors for successfully carrying out this massive project so fast. This is a greenfield factory in every way imaginable, and yet with a genius idea, careful planning and meticulous implementation, everything has gone as planned," Spinnova CEO Janne Poranen.

The unique fibre spinning technology concept is invented by Spinnova. Its trusted suppliers in the implementation were mostly local forces; engineering partner Elomatic and installation partner Betamet. The pilot factory was loan financed by Business Finland and OP Bank (European Investment Bank’s Innofin loan).

Spinnova is now looking for committed commercial partners to run product development trials during next year, when there will be enough fibre for testing on real fabrics, creating prototype products.

Once Spinnova has proof of concept in the pilot factory, the technology will be multipliable and licensable. This fully correlates with our vision of scaling the sustainable fibre production into big commercial volumes in the future for maximum environmental impact, added Poranen.

The technology now piloted is suitable not only for the wood-based fibre production, but also to the other potential bio-based raw materials Spinnova is considering. Spinnova’s raw material commitment is to only use FSC-certified wood or waste streams, processed with 0 per cent harmful chemicals. (RR)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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