News

Europe's largest soya processing plant is currently under construction in Uusikaupunki. The soya processing company Finnprotein Oy, has shown faith in Elomatic's agrochemical engineering know-how by entrusting it with the design of the 100 million euro project.

– We are involved in an EPCM-type capacity. This means that we are responsible for plant design that covers a wide range of disciplines as well as procurement and supervision services in the construction phase, Vice President Hannu Heikkilä explains.

Domestic agrochemical expertise

The construction work in the Orivo industrial area has already started. The construction project is progressing fast and the intention is to have the plant up and running by the summer of 2013. The project is a rarity even for an experienced engineering company.

– The processing plant is being designed and constructed completely from scratch. These kinds of projects are quite rare in Finland, says Elomatic CEO Olli Manner.

Modern soya plants process soyabean to produce products for the animal feed industry, foodstuffs industry and for biofuels. The Israeli company Netzcon has developed a process whereby soybeans are one hundred percent processed without producing waste.

– Our best know-how comes to the fore in applying this technology to local conditions and environmental requirements, Mr Manner continues.

Elomatic is the leader in agrochemical engineering and consulting in Finland. The versatile soybean is fully utilized up to and including the bean hulls. In addition to animal feed and soybean oil it can be further processed into soya concentrate i.e. protein concentrate, lecithin, molasses and granules.

Elomatic's know-how and experience makes it a natural partner to lead the implementation of the soya processing plant project, as no equals can be found in the Nordic countries and the plant will be the biggest of its kind in Europe.

– In fact there are only a few processing plants of equal size in the world, says Mr Heikkilä.

– Running at full capacity the soya processing plant will process about 400 000 tonnes of soybean a year.

Soya processing plant a significant domestic project

In spite of its large size, the main markets for the processing plant's products will be nearby. The plant is an infusion of energy for Uusikaupunki with regards to its effect on the local economy and employment. The location of the plant was long a subject of debate. At Elomatic we are also satisfied that a domestic location has been chosen.

According Mr Manner the greatest demands of the project are as follows:

– While the process plant is being built its organizational structure has to be simultaneously defined. During this time the new technology must also be applied to meet local requirements and possible development projects have to be identified.

– Completely ready-to-use technology does not exist. During big projects one often notices things that can be done better, Mr Heikkilä continues.

Domestic partners are essential for Elomatic to ensure reliability in providing solutions to these challenges. The plant's building contractor, SRV, is responsible for the construction of the plant buildings, which total 18 in the initial phase. A new biomass power plant that will produce steam for the soya processing plant will also be built in Uusikaupunki.

Elomatic – a domestic forerunner

Elomatic is a globally operating consulting and engineering company and a leader in its field in Scandinavia. Elomatic's operations are focused on the provision of a comprehensive range of plant, ship and mechanical design, engineering and project management services that cover the initial investment and product development phase, as well as the entire life cycle of technical investments. Elomatic is a pioneering design method developer and has achieved international success with its software for 3D plant and ship design. Elomatic is globally operating, privately owned company and have clients in over 70 countries around the world.

Text: Petteri Mero

Additional information provided by:
Olli Manner
tel. 0400 524843

Hannu Heikkilä
tel. 040 5000427

Espotel Ltd and Elomatic Ltd have entered into an agreement whereby Espotel's automation operations and related automation unit in Tampere have been transferred to Elomatic. The unit designs and implements demanding automation solutions for plants and factories.

The management of the automation unit personnel, design resources and customer relationships was transferred to the Elomatic Tampere office on 1.9.2011. The unit's four automation designers will continue in their current positions as Elomatic employees.

Espotel is a Finnish engineering company and a provider of R&D services for embedded systems development. It designs electronics products, embedded software and related testing systems. Espotel was founded in 1986 and in 2010 its turnover amounted to 21 M€. The company employs about 240 employees in Finland at its offices in Espoo, Tampere, Jyväskylä, Kuopio, Vaasa and Oulu as well as in Wroclaw, Poland. Espotel serves customers in the electronics and data communications fields as well as manufactures of machinery and medical equipment. Espotel's clients include among others ABB, Metso, Kone, Orion, Satel, Suunto, ThermoFischer, Teleste, Tellabs and Vaisala as well as many other small and medium-sized companies.

Elomatic is a globally operating consulting and engineering company that employs over 700 highly educated experts. The focus of our operations is on the provision of a comprehensive range of plant, ship and mechanical design including engineering and project management services that cover the initial investment and product development phase, as well as the entire life cycle of technical investments. Elomatic is a pioneering design method developer and has achieved international success with our software for 3D plant and ship design.

Elomatic has 5 offices in Finland, 2 offices in Poland and an office in China, Russia, Serbia and India. The company headquarters are located in Turku. The Elomatic Group turnover for 2010 was about 30 M€.

For more information please contact Espotel Managing Director Pertti Kauppinen, tel. 040-516 9302 and Elomatic SVP Heikki Pöntynen, tel. 050-550 9665.

A new work of art by Merja Pitkänen has been unveiled on the banks of the Aura river in Turku on the doorstep of the Elomatic headquarters. The artwork was commissioned as a 70th birthday gift to Elomatic founder and Chairman of the Board, Ari Elo. In conjunction with celebrating four decades of ongoing operation, Elomatic is leaving a permanent cultural mark on the Turku surroundings in honour of Turku being the 2011 European cultural capital. Elomatic has donated the artwork to the Turku town.

The artwork is made up of four steel drops. The shiny steel represents Elomatic's operations in the technology field while the drops or river stones refer to environmental values. According to the sculptor the drop shapes also represent the Aura river and see and their value to the town and surrounding area.

Elomatic's Marine Engineering business unit has received several significant orders in December 2010 and January 2011.They include the new Viking Line ferry for STX Finland Turku, a multipurpose icebreaker for Sovcomflot built by Arctech Helsinki Shipyard as well as a Road Ferry for UKI Workboat Ltd to mention a few..

In conjunction with the European Day of the Entrepreneur, Elomatic was awarded the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Turku Award by the Turku Region Development Centre on 2 June 2010.

The award comes in recognition of "long-term and distinguished operations as one of Turku city's flagship companies". The Turku Region Development Centre congratulated Elomatic not only for its innovative and long-term business operations, but also made special mention of Elomatic's commitment to socially responsible business operations.

According to Kalle Euro, Business Development Director at the Turku Regional Development Centre, Elomatic has shown the profitability of broadminded and bold development work through its steady growth over its 40 year history. He further pointed out that Elomatic's professionalism and success has had a positive impact on the entire Turku region's business life.

Uki Workboat Ltd has ordered detail design work (hull, machinery and hvac) for a new Estonian MPS vessel and technical support for basic design phase of mainly machinery areas from Elomatic.

This new engineering agreement between Uki Workboat and Elomatic is already the fourth of its kind regarding engineering of multipurpose vessels. The new multipurpose vessel ordered by the Estonian Ministry of the Interior is equipped mainly with the same features as the earlier built and renewed Finnish Border Guard patrol vessels Tursas and Uisko, also built by Uki Workboat.

The roughly 1000 dwt vessel is a large order for Uki Workboat. The ship will be delivered to the customer in September 2012. In addition to oil recovering duties the ship can also be used for coast guard and marine rescue operations.

The value of the order for Uki Workboat is about 30 M€. The project scope represents 10 man years for Elomatic.

The Finnish Border Guard has commissioned Elomatic for the concept design, feasibility verification and basic design and of a new border patrol vessel. Elomatic will cooperate closely with the Finnish Border Guard and Aker Arctic Ltd in the design process.

The Finnish Border Guard and the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) launched the project together. The project goal is to improve Finland's rapid response capacity for oil spills, border control and marine safety operations.

The Finnish Border Guard has in cooperation with other authorities set out performance specifications for the vessel. Border patrol and marine safety operations require improvements in the performance of current equipment. The vessel will be designed to be versatile in order to perform rescue, patrol, security and coastal defense duties. The vessel will be used for border patrol, sea rescue, environmental and natural resource monitoring, oil spill control in the open sea, international operations, marine research and other cooperative tasks between authorities.

Special attention is being paid to the vessel's environmental friendliness, low emission levels and energy efficiency. The possibility of fulfilling strict exhaust gas emission requirements is for example currently being studied.

The Elomatic InfoKeeper will be used the project information management.

Gasum and Biovakka have launched the process to design a biogas facility to be constructed in Nastola, Finland. The two partners have selected Elomatic as the principal designer providing EPCM services for the EUR10 million project. The first of its kind in Finland, the biogas facility is scheduled to begin production of 100% Finnish renewable transport fuel in 2011.

Production at the facility will be based on a process of anaerobic digestion of biomass, with raw materials to be used including sludge from municipal purification plants and other biodegradable fractions. The facility will have annual capacity to process 120,000 tonnes of biomass and generate around 50 GWh of energy from biogas. A by-process of the system will produce recycled nutrients that are ideal for use in crop farming.

To be constructed in Nastola, the facility will be the first biogas plant in Finland to produce biogas that can be injected into the natural gas network. The biogas produced by the plant's anaerobic digestion process will be purified and its relative methane content increased. The properties of processed biogas correspond to those of natural gas, enabling it to be transmitted in the natural gas network.

The biogas produced by the Nastola facility will be used as transport fuel. In future biogas injected into the natural gas network will be sold at every Gasum natural gas vehicle (NGV) filling station. Gasum currently operates 13 stations and aims to double the number within the next few years.