Vow has decided to establish a new subsidiary, Vow Industries, which will accelerate the green shift in the industry. The company will develop, own and operate facilities based on Vow's process technology. Vow Industries' first goal is to build a factory to produce biocarbon for the metallurgical industry, CO2-neutral gas for district heating and biofuel for the petrochemical industry.
As part of this initiative, Vow has agreed letters of intent with the forest owners' association Viken Skog and the district heating company Vardar Varme. Both are central to the realization of the new factory. Viken Skog will supply biomass to the factory, which in turn will supply clean and CO2-neutral gas to Vardar Varme's district heating plant. Vow is also in dialogue with companies in the metallurgical industry about the sale of biocarbon, which will be the factory's main product.
Demand created by industry in transition
Demand for biocarbon is expected to increase significantly in the next few years, as a result of large, international industrial groups undergoing a significant green restructuring in order to achieve their goals of CO2 neutrality by 2050. Biocarbon will replace fossil coal as a reducing agent in the metallurgical industry.
"Technology and solutions from Vow will play a key role in this change. Initially, Vow Industries will produce biocarbon in Norway, but our goal is for the company to be an incubator that can establish more industrial production companies with Vow's technology," says Henrik Badin, CEO of Vow ASA.
"We will show not only the Norwegian, but also the international industry, that we have technological solutions that accelerate the green shift," Badin continues.
Significant investments
An investment of around NOK 200 million is expected in the first construction phase of the new facility. This will be partly financed by loans and partly with support from Enova, a state enterprise promoting innovation within energy and climate technology.
Vow has a close dialogue with Enova and has reason to believe that this project will qualify for support. The final investment decision will be made when the result of the Enova application is available. Given a positive investment decision, production of processing equipment will start in the spring of 2021 with deliveries until summer 2022 when the factory is set to start production.
This first factory owned by Vow Industries is planned at Follum in Ringerike, some 60 km north-west of Oslo, Norway. The area is centrally located by Hønefoss with access to rich biomass resources, such as recycled wood and biomass from sawmills and forests nearby.
In addition, there is a railway directly into the industrial area, with good connections to the port for shipping in Drammen for further shipping to ports along the Norwegian coast where most producers of the metallurgical industry in need of climate-neutral biochar are located.
Market with great potential
Today, the metallurgical industry in Norway uses almost one million tonnes of fossil coal and coke a year, corresponding to around seven per cent of the national CO2 emissions. On a global basis the metallurgical industry accounts for almost 10 per cent of the total emissions.
The market for biocarbon is large and growing. The first construction phase at Follum will be able to produce 10,000 tonnes of green and CO2-neutral biocarbon, but Vow envisages a large-scale development at Follum, and eventually also elsewhere in Norway and in Europe.
"Our goal is for Vow Industries to be able to cover a significant part of the demand for biocarbon from the metallurgical industry," says Badin.
Norway at the front
"In Vow, we believe Norway can become a world leader in innovation that could solve climate challenges and help industries towards a CO2-neutral future. Then different industry players and environments must work together, as we have recently announced we will do with Bellona, an environmental foundation with considerable knowledge and expertise in biocarbon, carbon capture and pyrolysis," says Badin.
"If we play our cards correctly at Follum, we hope that Norway will start writing a new chapter in its technological and industrial history, which will long outlive the country's oil era," Badin concludes.
For more information, please contact
Henrik Badin
CEO Vow ASA
Email: henrik.badin@vowasa.com
Phone: +47 90 78 98 25
About Vow ASA
In Vow and our subsidiaries Scanship and Etia we are passionate about preventing pollution and giving waste value. Our world leading solutions convert biomass and waste into valuable resources and generate clean CO2 neutral energy for a wide range of industries.
Cruise ships on every ocean have Vow technology inside which processes waste and purifies wastewater. Fish farmers are adopting similar solutions, and public utilities and industries use our solutions for sludge processing, waste management and biogas production on land.
Our ambitions go further than this. With our advanced technologies and solutions, we turn waste into biogenetic fuels to help decarbonize industry and convert plastic waste into fuel, clean energy and high-value pyro carbon.
Our solutions are scalable, standardized, patented and thoroughly documented, and our capability to deliver is well proven. They are key to end waste and stop pollution.
Located in Oslo, the parent company Vow ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker VOW from 13 January 2020).
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
