In Hoganas, Sweden, HoganasAB is building a new industrial-scale biomass gasification plant, a manufacturer of metal powder and powder products.Built by biomass gasification technology developer Cortus Energy AB, it is the world's first new technology-based biomass gasification non-fossil demonstration steel plant.

At HoganasAB's industrial base in Hoganas, a 14-metre gasifier was installed.Intensive construction has been under way since the foundation laying ceremony in November 2017 to complete the plant ahead of the launch ceremony in June.

In Hoganas, the biomass gasification plant will produce bio-gas from forest raw materials, which will replace the fossil gas used in the production of Hoganas.

The facility is capable of reducing Hoganas carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 tons per year.However, the first stage is intended to show how the new fuel plays a role in the heat treatment of steel.Furthermore, the goal is to promote the technology so that the entire industry can phase out fossil fuels, said Magnus Pettersson, project manager at HoganasAB.

In the iron and steel industry seems to have had no alternatives to fossil fuels, until now the idea become a reality, Cortus energy company has developed a technology, this technology meet the requirements of the manufacturing process, including production gas cleanliness and high temperature.This was an idea coined in 2006 by Rolf Ljunggren, the founder and chief executive of Cortus energy, and is rapidly becoming a reality in Hoganas.

Since 2011, we have developed and studied this technology in our test facility at Koping, but this is the first time we have built an industrial-scale factory.This means that we have extended Hoganas's initial test equipment 12 times.First, we hired eleven people to run the factory.After starting a business, some of them will be integrated into our process team, says Rolf Ljunggren, chief executive of Cortus Energy.

Assuming the project is successful, the technology could revolutionise the steel industry, eliminating the use of fossil fuels and coke in production.

This investment of about 100 million kronor (9.8 million euros) material, this is the technical promotion to manufacturing and processing industry is an important step in the more companies, and contribute to the overall reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the whole society, which are very attractive for companies from all over the world.

Everyone is waiting for the first industrial facility to open in June.'at our plant in Koping, we have visitors from all the Nordic countries and from France, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, China and Russia,' Mr. Rolf Ljunggren said.