Billerud is a world-leading company in high-performance paper and packaging materials made from wood fiber with production units in Sweden, Finland and the USA.
The Swedish greentech company Mantex has now installed a Biomass Analyzer testing equipment in Billerud’s factory in Gävle in Sweden, to allow the manufacturer to evaluate the machine’s effectiveness when it comes to measuring moisture content in incoming wood chips.
At Billerud’s facility in Gävle, material is produced daily for 200 million single-portion type beverage packages, which means that every fourth portioned beverage in the world contains cardboard produced at the factory in Gävle.
As raw material for its cardboard production, the facility uses sawmill chips that arrive by truck as well as by train and boat. The different modes of transport and the large flow of material mean that the mill needs to carry out many measurements of the moisture content of incoming chips. The moisture is crucial for determining the price of the raw material but also for optimizing the subsequent process of conversion to pulp and then cardboard. Currently, the mill uses traditional methods for measuring solids content, including slow oven drying method.
“Our assessment is that our Biomass Analyzer can offer a significantly more efficient solution and thus can contribute to increasing the mill’s profitability. The tests will show how big the potential is, but other customers with similar needs have noticed a clear improvement in efficiency when using our X-ray-based and automatic measurement technology,” says Martin Frid, Chief Commercial Officer at Mantex AB.
Approved official testing method
The Mantex Biomass Analyzer has been approved to determine the moisture content in sawmill chips and sawdust, which means that the machine can officially be used as a testing method to determine price and quality on the existing market for sawmill chips and sawdust. Read more about the Biomass Analyzer here.
Mantex offers trial period for evaluation
For interested customers to be able to determine whether the Biomass Analyzer can contribute to increased efficiency, Mantex offers an opportunity to evaluate the machine on site in ongoing operations before entering into a commercial agreement. This model was used, for example, before the Swedish pulp mill Waggeryd Cell signed a ten-year leasing agreement regarding a Biomass Analyzer (read more about Waggeryd Cell and Biomass Analyzer – link). A transition to automatic testing using the Biomass Analyzer means a major change in technology, which in turn can represent a threshold for potential customers.
“By offering the customer to experience the big differences for themselves means that you can remove much of the uncertainty that a change in technology always entails,” says Max Gerger, CEO of Mantex AB.
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