Nordic Cleantech Superstars Selected – The 25 most promising Nordic Cleantech Innovations as voted by international industrials, investors and experts

Lund, 6th February 2012

Press release

Nordic Cleantech Superstars Selected – The 25 most promising Nordic Cleantech Innovations as voted by international industrials, investors and experts

We are very proud to present the top 25 Cleantech start-ups from the Nordic Cleantech Open competition.

An impressive bigger than ever jury consisting of more than 60 influential representatives from multinational companies and venture capital has been involved in selecting this year’s contestants.

Among those are representatives from business development and venture arms of leading energy companies such as E.ON and Fortum, chemical companies such as BASF and 3M, building sector companies such as Skanska and Tyrens, pulp and paper companies such as Metso and Stora Enso, and other large industries with worldwide operations such as Veiola, Maersk, Grundfos and Siemens.

Among the venture capital funds represented in the jury are not only actors based in the Nordic countries but also from China, USA, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland.

The Nordic Cleantech open competition runs for its second consecutive year and both the number of applicants and the quality of applying companies have improved. This year 97 companies applied and the quality of applications was so high that a top 50 list might have been more suitable.

“The amount of innovation and business opportunity that lies in these 25 start-ups is nothing short of stunning. They say some of the world’s most successful companies where built during recessions. I believe they will say the same about many of these in a couple of years”, says Alexander Bigge Lidgren, managing director of the Nordic Cleantech Open.

”We like the quality and the diversified mix this year. A lot of them target big industrial customers with ”must have solutions”, which is exactly what’s needed to succeed”, comments Jörg Sperling, Partner at WHEB Partners, Munich.

The top 25 truly is a selection of cutting edge environmental technology companies. It is also a quick look on what is new, what is coming and what one can expect to see more of in the future. An interesting trait among a clear majority of the top selected companies is that their solutions typically remove a pain for an existing industry instead of challenging an entire industry.

An intensive program lies ahead for the finalists. It kicks off with a Nordic Camp at the castle of Trolleholm, Sweden in February, continues with a showcase in Pamplona, Spain in March and culminates in the Final at the Cleantech Venture Day in Lahti, Finland in April, where participants from all over the world select the winner. Last years event attracted over 250 participants including 50+ investors, 80 cleantech companies and dozens of corporations and influence makers.

Here are the selected 25:

Aquiloz, Norway
www.aquiloz.com

Aquiloz is developing the next generation of wind power prediction and trading information system. The Aquiloz system use computational fluid dynamics - CFD models combined with both production forecasting, risk assessment and decision support tools. The system will deploy plug-ins and adaptors in order to be integrated with the customers existing systems.

Asema Electronics, Finland
www.asema.com

Asema Electronics manufactures consumer terminals and wireless controllers. Asema E electricity saver is a touchscreen display that offers an integrated Home Area Network gateway, home automation, per appliance power measurement, tariff driven home appliance control, and smart meter integration in one device.

Black Silicon Solar, Denmark
www.blacksiliconsolar.com

Black Silicon Solar develops a nanotechnology process for improving silicon solar cells in a cost-efficient way. Focusing on cost reduction rather than improving efficiency Black Silicon Solar has developed an alternative texturing process that reduce production cost, production time, use of toxic chemicals and use of silicon.

Carbatt, Norway
www.carbatt.no

Carbatt offer a solution to power electric vehicles based on a new unique nano-cell solid-state battery. The battery delivers energy densities above 30 times that of lithium batteries. This makes the electric vehicle not just competitive but superior to any combustion engine driven vehicle both in performance, range and cost.

Cellfab, Sweden
www.cellfab.se

Cell-reinforcement is a new, unique reinforcement method for concrete, asphalt and other materials. The Cell-reinforcement produced by Cellfab uses 75% less steel than traditional reinforcement. Cell-reinforcement also strengthens the structure and has better pressure- and crack distribution. The method can reduce labour costs with more than 50%.

CentriClean Systems, Sweden
www.centriclean.eu

CentriClean Systems offers solutions for industrial air cleaning. The technology is based on traditional cyclonic separation principles but it is much more efficient. By using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations CentriClean has come up with a whole new design that eliminates all the downfalls of traditional cyclones.

Danish Power Systems, Denmark
www.daposy.com

The fuel cells from Danish Power Systems deliver efficient, clean and renewable energy. Danish Power Systems develops the critical component, the membrane electrode assembly, which facilitates the electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Danish Power Systems is able to control very complicated parameters to achieve desired qualities as one of very few companies in the world.

Ekobalans Fenix, Sweden
www.ekobalans.se

Ekobalans offers sustainable solutions in the handling of nutrient rich residues such as sewage sludge, biogas digestate, manure and bio energy ashes. The nutrients in the residues are extracted by Ekobalans in a patented process and refined into high quality recycled alternatives to artificial fertilizers that do not carry a ballast of heavy metals and harmful organic substances.

Ekolite, Finland
www.ekolite.fi

Ekolite converts “Waste to Value” when making composite materials from biomass and industrial wastes. The manufacturing technology is very resource efficient. Ekolite will commercialize new modified biofuel ash based geopolymers for infrastructures and new natural fibre composites for thermal, acoustic and fire insulating materials.

Enercomp, Finland
www.enercomp.fi

Enercomp's solution reduces energy consumption of industrial pumping and fan systems. Information is gathered from the pumps by a wireless sensor system. Based on this a survey of the pump systems is established and the system can be optimised. The system covers all motor applications and the savings are easy and immediate.

Enevo, Finland
www.enevo.com

Enevo offers a solution that gives waste management companies 20-40% savings in waste collection costs by optimizing their collection intervals, routes and equipment utilization. This is accomplished by using proprietary smart wireless fill level sensors and powerful online analytics software.

Lunavation, Sweden
www.lunavation.com

With the use of the new super material graphene, Lunaviation have succeeded in producing a new type of lighting component. This component has proven to work satisfactory and can be printed in a roll-roll process over large surfaces at low cost. Lunaviation’s light emitting component will among other applications be an alternative to OLEDs.

MetGen, Finland
www.metgen.fi

MetGen is developing and producing oxidase enzymes called Laccases. MetGen’s Laccases can be used in a number of industrial processes. One example of use are wood pre-treatment in pulp and paper mills where Laccases give a 15%-20% reduction of the energy consumption.

NeoZeo, Sweden
www.neo-zeo.com

Based on inventions in the preparation of volume-efficient and durable adsorbents for gas separation, NeoZeo is offering novel solutions to tap the largest unexplored potential for producing raw biogas; the farms. NeoZeo will build biogas-upgrading modules suitable for small and mid-sized flows of raw biogas produced at farms, the oil wells of the future!

Numcore, Finland
www.numcore.com

Numcore has developed a solution that increases the recovery in froth flotation processes. The solution enables automatic control of froth properties leading to a significant increase in recovery. It creates a 3D-image of the flotation cell and accurately measures stiffness and thickness of the froth via conductivity measurements.

Norsetek, Norway
www.norsetek.no

Using Norsetek’s innovative concept wind turbine rotors can be built significantly lighter and larger than today. The method can save up to 40% of the rotor weight, and lower the fabrication costs significantly. The rotor blades are also sectioned near the middle! This enables easy transport of even larger wind turbines on small roads and by sea!

Orexplore, Sweden
www.orexplore.com

Orexplore is developing a portable, easy-to-use and extremely accurate equipment for analysing the composition of non-organic materials. It can for example detect hazardous heavy metals. The measurement is based on an innovative method combining two x-ray detection principles, fluorescence and transmission detection. The detection accuracy is unprecedented for an instrument in this category.

Pegasor, Finland
www.pegasor.fi

The innovation of Pegasor is a sensor for continuous fine particle concentration monitoring. Pegasor already has a market presence in the automotive industry. This market will grow rapidly in the next few years as well as the market for indoor air, outdoor air and stack emission monitoring that Pegasor will also commercialize solutions for.

Re-Turn, Norway
www.re-turn.no

Re-Turn produces solvent-free coatings and gel coats in PUR and epoxy, reinforced with carbon nano-tubes. Applications are found in offshore, shipbuilding and wind energy. The carbon nano-tubes add strength and provide a lower surface roughness that translates into easier cleaning, less use of chemicals and lowering of the friction in water and air.

ReformTech, Sweden
www.reformtech.se

The flame free catalytic combustion in ReformTech’s unique catalytic heaters provides several advantages such as high fuel efficiency without any dangerous emissions. Among other advantages with this exciting technology is, the possibility to use different fuels, a directionally controllable heat radiation, low costs and robust performance.

Tomologic, Sweden
www.tomologic.com

Tomologic offers a scalable optimization service online that benefits customers through cost savings without the need of any user interaction and initial investments. Tomologic has developed a technology that optimize sheet metal cutting. The process reduces scrap from raw material in this energy intensive industry up to 50%.

Ultranat, Finland
www.ultranat.fi

Ultranat has developed and protected a unique method for processing ash. The method enables ash from biomass fuel power plants to be processed into valuable products. The micronutrients are separated and used for fertilizers and animal feed. The remaining parts, i.e. the body part of ash, consists of purified silicate fractions, which have several applications.

Vasasensor, Sweden
www.vasasensor.com

Vasasensor’s thin sensor units enable optimization of production processes during full speed. This is a solution for the needs of the paper industry to better control dewatering in the press section of the paper machines. Only 1% more efficient dewatering in the press leads to 4 % increased production or 4% less steam consumption.

ZEG Power, Norway
www.zegpower.com

With an efficiency of about 80-90% and integrated CO2 capture the ZEG-technology represents a truly revolutionary energy technology concept. The ZEG-technology produces both electricity and hydrogen with integrated CO2 capture less expensive than today. In addition there are no other emissions, and the technology is flexible with respect to fuels.

Zemission, Sweden
www.zemission.se

Zemission’s product is a multi-fuel, zero emission burner system for heating systems in Electric and Hybrid vehicles. Due to the absence of heat from a combustion engine, heating the interior of these is a problem. Electrical heating reduces the driving range of up to 50%. The Zemission burner is outstanding for this application. It does not reduce the range, it is silent, and it is Zero Emission.

- ENDS-

About Nordic Cleantech Open

The Nordic Cleantech Open is a business competition aiming to identify, upgrade and display the top 25 early stage clean tech companies in the Nordic region each year.

Web site
For more information about the competition and the companies visit

http://www.nordiccleantechopen.com

Alexander Lidgren, +46736601007
bigge@nordiccleantechopen.com

Pressroom
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/pressroom/cleantechscandinavia