The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary since Chempolis Oy was established back in January 1995. What started as a small family business has now grown into an international company renowned for its innovative formico® biorefining technologies. However, how did the story of Chempolis begin? Let’s take a trip down the 30-year-old memory lane.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Finnish chemical industry group Kemira and central laboratory KCL collaborated in developing a novel process for the manufacturing of chemical pulp. A new process was aimed to be developed, as the chemical pulp industry was highly polluting at the time. Based on research and development, a novel and environmentally friendly method was developed, which still didn’t lead to a breakthrough.
However, the director of Kemira’s Oulu factories at the time, Esa Rousu, saw huge potential in the sustainable method. The real turning point began when the question arose: ‘What if instead of wood, the process utilized non-wood feedstocks, such as agricultural residues?’ Thus, Chempolis was born, and the company continued the development work of Kemira and KCL.
Pioneering work yields results
The longest serving employee in Chempolis, CTO Juha Anttila, started his journey in the company in 1996 as a summer worker. In his early years, Anttila focused on research and developing Chempolis’ process further mainly at the University of Oulu’s facilities. On a monthly basis, he got together with the supervising professor and Chempolis’ founder and then CEO Esa Rousu to discuss about the research done and the next steps forward. The amount of new information gained from research and development was substantial.
“Even though there was a long history of development work in the background, it was still this kind of pioneer work of discovering novel things. Challenges in the process were previously identified, and new solutions were strived to be found. And we did find lots of them. It was intensive and innovative work with minimal resources”, says Anttila.
“After Kemira’s and KCL’s work it was surprising how many new things and improvements a small team found during a short period of time. But after Chempolis’ 30-year development work, discovering those is not so easy anymore. Now, there is more development potential in commercialization.”
Nevertheless, significant improvements have been made even in the recent years. For example, lignin has become a more prominent part of our commercial concept, even though it has been involved in the research and development work since the beginning. Lignin is not only linked to technology but also to our expertise in product and business development. All in all, Chempolis’ development work is nowadays excellently suited for current industry needs.
A place to grow and be bold
Along with many other students in the 90s, Anttila did his master’s thesis for Chempolis in the late 1990s, too. Before Anttila joined the company, approximately ten different theses were already done for Chempolis. However, Anttila also continued to do his doctoral dissertation based on the research he did for the company and describes the moment he semi-accidentally found his subject matter as one of the highlights in his research career.
“I remember the moment, when we looked at the results in Kemira’s pilot laboratory: ‘this is how it actually goes’. I said that could it be that formic acid catalyses its own reactions, and we thought it could very well be the explanation for the surprising experimental results. This phenomenon ended up in my dissertation’s title and lead to several patents.”
Operating in four different decades, Chempolis’ personnel count has increased from the starting few to almost forty full-time employees today in two continents and three locations. A lot has changed since the days of a small family business, but some things are still present. For instance, the industry faces similar challenges related to investments and the reluctance to adopt new technologies. However, these matters are tackled with the same innovativeness, efficiency and courage than before in the current hectic business environment.
“The attitude and ways of working are nowadays the same than when we started: if there is a problem, we just roll up our sleeves and figure it out. We know how to test and build, and eventually, solve the issues”, Anttila states.
Throughout our anniversary year 2025, we will be posting highlights and pieces of information from our 30-year journey. Follow our LinkedIn page to keep yourself posted.
Chempolis in brief
Chempolis’ formico®-technologies enable the production of high-quality products, such as bioethanol, biochemicals and sulfur-free lignin, sustainably out of lignocellulosic feedstocks. The process utilizes an extensive range of lignocellulosic biomasses in a flexible manner, with high material efficiency.
The biorefining processes of Chempolis are designed to minimize negative environmental impacts and maximize social benefits globally. Chempolis’ services entail biorefinery project development, technology licensing, project and application development. The company also offers biorefinery piloting services.