A lime processing plant, which processes paper industry side streams into products for other industries, is currently under construction in Loviisa. The product quality will be comparable to that of products made from virgin raw materials. “It’s never easy being on the cutting edge. Although ready-made technologies are available on the market, they weren’t suitable for use with recycled raw materials. That’s why we developed our own technology and filed a patent for it,” says Soilfood CEO Eljas Jokinen.

Circular economy company Soilfood develops solutions that convert industrial side streams into new products of high added value. The company’s most significant investment in its history is currently underway in Loviisa, where a lime product processing plant is being built.

Solutions were trialled in laboratory and field tests before simulating production on an industrial scale.

“The results speak for themselves. The chemical properties of Newera Active lime ensure consistent quality. 90% of the particles are less than 40 microns in size, thus making it finer than potato flour. The chemical properties of the product are consistently of high quality. Not only that, the raw material used in the product was still considered waste in the paper industry just ten years ago,” adds project manager Juho Mäkelä.

New level of quality for the industry

During its first year of operation, the processing plant is expected to produce approximately 6,000 tonnes of lime. There is still no other product like it in the Nordic countries. It is especially interesting to companies that want to reduce the carbon footprint of their production and end products.

“We are changing the criteria of lime products for industry. In addition to the security of supply and price, the emphasis is on resilience and emissions reductions.”

According to calculations, replacing virgin raw materials with a circular economy product would result in a 5.4 million tonne reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from an annual production of 6,000 tonnes. Traditionally, the production of quicklime and slaked lime requires heating extracted limestone to over 1,000 degrees using natural gas as a fuel, which produces approximately 900 kilograms of CO₂ emissions per tonne. Soilfood’s new solution produces less than 20 kilograms per tonne.

Scalable innovation

The Loviisa processing plant is the first of its kind, but its operating model can be replicated in other countries and at various industrial sites. The processing plant will also produce lime that can be used entirely for agricultural purposes.

“The circular economy is concrete: our solutions improve both the resource efficiency of industry and the resilience of agriculture. It also offers a new business model that will enhance our international growth,” says Jokinen.

Additional information:

Eljas Jokinen
CEO, Soilfood Oy
Tel. +358 40 703 1442
eljas.jokinen@soilfood.fi

Soilfood is a Nordic circular economy company, which processes industrial side streams to produce fertilisers and and soil improvers for agriculture as well as products for industry. Since its founding in 2015, the company has processed over 2 million tonnes of side streams into reusable materials. Soilfood’s solutions are widely used all over Finland and Sweden. The construction of the lime refinery has received co-funding from the European Union’s Rural Development Program.

*The emissions calculation takes into account the product’s life cycle stages from raw material extraction to the manufacturing (cradle-to-gate). The calculation does not include customer transport or emissions from the use of the product. Of priority, primary data is used. Secondary data is used from Sphera Professional 2024.2 and Ecoinvent 3.11 LCA databases. The calculation was conducted in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, where applicable. The calculation was carried out by Etteplan LTD in 2024. The emissions of the comparative product have been estimated based on publicly available EPD documentation from similar products.

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