Super material made from forest industry waste streams is born out of frustration

The main motivation for the founders of the start-up company Bright Day Graphenes is to contribute to a better and more environmentally friendly world. Now they have found the location for their first facility to produce the material graphene - Ånge in Västernorrland.
- "For us, Västernorrland is an interesting region because there are both suppliers and customers here. We chose Ånge because it has a green mindset where industries collaborate and use each other's waste streams," says Malin Alpsten, CEO and founder of Bright Day Graphene.

The start-up company Bright Day Graphene was born out of frustration that it is so difficult to be environmentally friendly. The two founders Malin Alpsten and Anna Carlsson agreed to start a company that would do something positive for the world's climate and environment. The only question was where to start?

- Anna thought we should start with the materials because that's the basis for everything," says Malin Alpsten.

And it is not just any material that the company has developed. Anna Carlsson has developed a process to produce the substance graphene from renewable resources. Graphene is described as a super material that can change the world. It is highly interesting, for example in battery production. The most common raw material for producing graphene is graphite, but Bright Day Graphene uses lignin, which is a waste stream from the paper and pulp industry.

- I said that if we want to get people to switch materials in their products, we have to offer higher performance. With graphene, you can increase performance in almost everything. We have managed to optimize our graphene for energy storage," says Malin Alpsten.

In their tests, the company has found that Grapholium®, as their trademarked product is called, extends the life of car batteries by at least 280%. Other research and tests show that batteries with added graphene have a 45 percent faster charging time and 100 percent better fire safety.

The interest in Ånge brought them to the BizMakers program.

Since August 2023, Bright Day Graphene has been one of the companies participating in BizMaker's Forest Business Accelerator program. A strategic decision when the interest in Ånge appeared.

- We have received good support in the program with our project to establish ourselves in Ånge. We have expanded our contact network in Ånge and Sundsvall and are in a phase where we have been able to absorb much of what we received in the program. Since we have such a clear path forward, we have been able to apply new knowledge in our next step," says Malin.

Part of the program concept is to offer the companies seminars by various experts and then have individual conversations with the experts. An approach that suited Malin Alpsten.

- For us, the parts dealing with branding and contracts have been particularly interesting because it is only now that we have been able to look up and start focusing on sales. It has also been good to be able to discuss challenges with different people. And it has been a lot of fun too!

The future is in Västernorrland

The way forward for the company is clear. They are raising money to finance the start-up of their pilot plant in Ånge. The goal is to have a production of one ton per year of their bio-based graphene up and running within two years.

- As soon as the funding is in place, we will start buying equipment. We already have a venue and sketches of what it will look like.

Forest Business Accelerator is a collaboration between BizMaker, SCA, IBM and RISE. It is an intensive business development program for startups with an innovation that in some way creates value for the forest or forest industry and also contributes positively to the green transition.