On 27th of June 2018, HTCycle headquarters was visited by a Swedish delegation from VOLVO Group. We were honored to have at our plant Mr. Robert Andersson, Manager Process Casting and Mr. Gert Karlsson, Senior specialist for Technical development and strategy at Volvo.
Volvo Group Trucks Operations manufactures iron components at its location in Skövde, Sweden by using coke, but they want to replace this fossil substance with HTC coal from aqueous biomass.
The plant tour was led by Mr. Stepan Kusche, who alongside HTCycle engineers showed our guests how the plant operates and how the process is managed in the control room. The HTC plant tour was followed by a detailed discussion about hydrothermal technology and its use in various industries.
The ongoing operation of the HTCycle plant convinced the Swedish experts about the advantages of HTCycle’s batch process. Both, Mr. Andersson and Mr. Karlsson mentioned that this technology is a novelty and seems promising for their industry. After discovering the wide range of use cases, the discussion was transferred from the technical to the economic level. The keen listeners checked and confirmed the data of HTCycle’s plant as well as the high potential which is in the use of HTCycle’s end products.
The Swedish experts decided on the spot to intensify a cooperation between Volvo and HTCycle. For this purpose, within 4 weeks, the technical specifications required for the coke will be exchanged and the biomass available in the vicinity of the Swedish Volvo production facility will be used for tests, for example residues from the paper, wood or waste industry. Subsequently, technical feasibility tests are planned on the HTCycle plant in Relzow and an engineering contract for the project planning will be closed within upcoming weeks.
Thus, a potential cooperation between HTCycle and Volvo might occur after conducting some tests and analysis of the processed material.