Benoît Grobon, Managing Director on the investment team at Just Climate, recently visited Sweden to witness the world’s first plant to turn wood waste into ultra low-carbon renewable gas. This visit marks an important milestone in the partnership between Just Climate and Meva Energy, initiated by a €30 million investment made two years ago to accelerate industrial decarbonization.
Two years ago, climate-led investor Just Climate made a significant €30 million investment in Meva Energy with the aim to accelerate industrial decarbonization. In June 2024, Managing Director on the investment team Benoît Grobon visited Meva Energy’s first commercial plant in Kisa, Sweden, which converts wood waste into ultra low-carbon renewable gas. During his visit, Grobon engaged with Meva Energy’s board and stakeholders, undertook a detailed tour of the patented gasification technology and witnessed the plant in full operation.
“It is incredibly satisfying to see a technological breakthrough operating at commercial scale, making a real impact in the real world. We backed Meva because their solution is a pragmatic answer to a real world problem. Meva offers lower cost than fossil fuels, lower volatility, an ultra low-carbon renewable product, and can be deployed anywhere, at any scale and for anyone needing industrial heat or electricity. Either Meva or their industrial customers can own and operate plants. The product is modular, financeable and deployable on relatively short timelines. We believe Meva’s solution is ready to scale, and as a climate-led investor, this is exactly the type of company we aim to support.”
Figure 2. Meva Energy’s renewable gas plant in Kisa, Sweden.
Today, industrial heat accounts for approximately 40 percent of the world’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions, and is most often fossil. The plant from Meva Energy solves this problem by using local wood waste and converting it into renewable gas, biosyngas, which is used for process heat (in this case to dry tissue paper). The plant in Sweden is the first in the world to replace fossil gas with renewable syngas at full commercial scale. The plant also produces biochar, which is recognized by the EU as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology, enhances soil health and reduces atmospheric carbon.
“Getting Just Climate onboard gave us confidence that we were on the right track in terms of sustainability, both from an environmental and a commercial perspective .However, being able to showcase a plant in full operation and actual decarbonization for Just Climate, is an even more important milestone and inspiration to grow further together.” Says Niclas Davidsson, CEO Meva Energy
Figure 1. Just Climate Managing Director Benoît Grobon inspects Meva Energy’s renewable gas plant in Kisa, Sweden, which transform local biomass residues into renewable gas, replacing fossil LPG for tissue drying.
About Just Climate
Just Climate is an investment business dedicated to climate-led investing to address the net-zero challenge at scale. Our ambition is to identify and invest in high-impact solutions for climate mitigation, as well as to catalyse and multiply capital to scale them. We seek to harness the power of institutional capital to accelerate, and to set a new standard for, climate-led investing. Just Climate LLP is an appointed representative of Generation Investment Management LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. For further information, please visit www.justclimate.com or ‘Just Climate’ on LinkedIn.
About Meva Energy
Meva Energy is an innovative company that provides renewable energy solutions to its customers in the manufacturing industry. Meva Energy’s technology focus is thermo-chemical conversion of solid biomass residue. The proprietary and award-winning technology is able to convert solid residue to renewable gas and it is the world’s only conversion technology having full acceptance of fine fraction feedstocks such as saw dust or fiber residue. Due to the stability and simplicity of the conversion process, the Meva Energy system is able to produce renewable gas cost-competitive to fossil gas. Meva Energy is backed by the climate fund Just Climate, AXA Investment Managers, Innoenergy and has received financial grants from the Swedish Energy Agency and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. Learn more at https://mevaenergy.com