Opcon Bioenergy is a full service supplier of a range of solutions based on Waste Heat Recovery. Today the company, with its strong Saxlund and Svensk Rökgasenergi brands, has established as one of the leading companies in the Swedish bioenergy market, and is implementing a strategy of international expansion for its energy and the environmental technologies. During a couple of years the business has increased its export share significantly, entering a growing number of markets and segments for flue gas condensation. Today the company has customers in twelve countries for its Waste Heat Recovery solutions. Eastern Europe, where fossil fuels and nuclear power still dominate the energy sector and bioenergy is still in its infancy, is a particularly interesting market with great potential for Opcon Bioenergy. Opcon Bioenergy is already well established in the Baltic countries. In early 2011, for example, nine installations for flue gas condensation, purification and water treatment will be carried out in Lithuania. In 2010, expansion in Eastern Europe continued, with breakthroughs in the Czech Republic and Poland, and with the signing of a cooperation agreement with a leading company in bioenergy in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In September 2010 Opcon Bioenergy won its first order for waste heat recovery installations in Poland. The order is for installation of gas condensation and treatment systems at the Olczyk sawmill in Swidno, Poland's largest sawmill.
Opcon’s technology will make the sawmill’s kilns more energy efficient. Fuel savings in the sawmill's production of heat are expected to reach 5 MW, which would be enough to heat around 1,000 houses. Overall, Olczyk expects to save around 18,000 tonnes of wood chips and reduce particle emissions by over 75 percent.
“This is the export of Swedish environmental technology at its best, and Olczyk sawmill is an excellent reference for Opcon Bioenergy. Now we are planning for a workshop on site for the Polish sawmill industry in early 2011 where we will describe the economic and environmental benefits that can be achieved," says Claes Scheibe, president of Opcon Bioenergy AB.
In June 2010, Opcon Bioenergy signed a cooperation agreement in bioenergy covering the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while at the same time receiving its first order for waste heat recycling installations in the Czech Republic. The order is for the supply of gas condensation including treatment at two district heating plants in Trebic, Czech Republic. Opcon’s installations improve energy efficiency by up to 30 percent through the use of waste heat, while particle emissions are reduced by about 75 percent.
Agreements have been signed with TTS EKO S.R.O., which is a leader in biomass in the Czech Republic and Slovakia with its own facilities and extensive technical sales in the sector. The company, which is also a former client to Saxlund, has about 130 employees and sells boilers, multi-cyclones, control systems, etc. TTS currently has some 40 references in bioenergy installations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The two district heating plants in Trebic are owned and operated by TTS. “With TTS, we have a partner who can market our technology and also themselves invest in it for their own plants. We will thus gain good references for existing systems already this year,” says Claes Scheibe. Opcon Bioenergy is part of Opcon’s growing Renewable Energy business area and its focus on Waste to Value with particular emphasis on Waste Heat Recovery and bioenergy.