Clean air is far from a given today. Every year, more than 3 million people die prematurely from diseases caused by polluted air at home, according to the WHO. At the same time, air purification often relies on fossil fuel sources and requires large amounts of materials.
Start-up company Adsorbi wants to change that. They have developed a super-material made of cellulose that easily traps air pollution - on average three times more efficiently than current methods.
- Today, fossil carbon is often used to make air filters. The bio-based alternatives consist of coconuts, which are often transported from the other side of the world. Bio-based, European alternatives are missing on the market - that's where we come in," says Hanna Johansson, CEO of Adsorbi.
From research to international markets
Adsorbis' journey began as a research project at Chalmers University of Technology, where researchers and co-founders Kinga Grenda and Romain Bordes succeeded in developing effective bio-based materials for air purification. Just two years later, the company has a product on the market. Their first product, which protects works of art and historical artifacts in museums, was launched in December 2023 and is now sold worldwide. In addition to outperforming the alternatives, the product changes color as the capacity decreases - resulting in much less material needed.
However, Adsorbi's ambitions extend far beyond the art world. It aims to make a global difference and improve indoor air quality for people all over the world.
- "We saw early on that we had the potential to make a big difference, and that's why it feels great that we managed to bring the research to the market so quickly," says Hanna Johansson.
Hanna, who holds a master's degree in biotechnology, has also previously worked with innovative startups and fossil-free alternatives. Together with her team, consisting of researchers from Chalmers and business developer Christian Löfvendahl, they now aim to expand both nationally and internationally.
New opportunities in the Forest Business Accelerator
In the fall of 2024, Adsorbi will participate in the Forest Business Accelerator, an accelerator that gives forest-related startups the opportunity to develop and test their business models. The program, run in collaboration with SCA, IBM and RISE, offers unique access to expertise and resources from leading players in fossil-free solutions and innovative forest industry. For Adsorbi, this means a chance to strengthen its product and create new collaborations, both in production and on the customer side.
- Adsorbi is a very exciting company and we see many opportunities for collaboration with them to continue developing their product in the future," says Jonna Almqvist, project manager at RISE. RISE's innovation environment in Örnsköldsvik helps companies to test and scale up new technologies in biorefinery and circular bioeconomy, with the aim of promoting the transition from fossil to bio-based solutions.
- The Forest Business Accelerator gives us the opportunity to network with key players in the industry and build Adsorbi as an ecosystem. We look forward to continuing to develop our product together with great partners," says Hanna Johansson.
