Exactly 10 years ago, five men working for equipment manufacturers in the industrial and energy sectors noticed a gap in the market.
The team had come up with a solution for reusing waste heat from industry and energy companies and utilizing environmental energy. The industry was lacking a company that offered complete systems and would also take responsibility in case of potential problems. Calefa Oy was born.
A milestone in the history of one company can be set in 2015, when the data center's waste heat was successfully transferred to the Mäntsälä district heating network. The reputation began to soar and the phone began to ring.
Calefa currently has 20 employees in Hollola and 15 at the production facility in Ikaalinen. Heat pump technology solutions have been produced for companies in the plastics, aluminum, food and forestry industries, among others. Remote monitoring, optimization and management of the equipment is handled remotely from the Hollola office.
A new innovation was born during the Corona period
When the coronavirus hit Finland in the spring of 2020, companies' investments were generally put on hold. Instead of idle time, Calefa focused on product development. When it was not possible to design solutions that utilize waste heat at the customer's site, it had to come up with something else instead.
Calefa developed a modular AmbiHeat package that allows you to build a heat pump plant in your own production facility and deliver it ready to the customer.
“AmbiHeat has been a significant key to our growth and also brings opportunities for export,” CEO Petri Mountain says.
The sawmill switched to heat pump technology
In the mechanical forest industry, the largest sources of waste heat in sawmills are sawn timber kilns, where megawatts of energy are lost to the winds.
Calefa made various measurements for UPM to determine how much energy would be available and calculations to find a system of suitable size.
“We showed what kind of savings and payback time could be achieved by utilizing the dryer's waste heat. After reading our report, UPM concluded that there is potential.”
UPM Korkeakoski, which switched to heat pump technology this summer
The sawmill utilizes waste energy at 52–60 degrees in its drying rooms, which is processed into heat at 100–115 degrees for the sawmill. At the same time, it has been possible to reduce the burning of wood chips.
"We are now able to produce heat of up to 120 degrees with a heat pump. In sawn timber kilns, temperatures above 100 degrees are usually needed, so now our heat pumps also work in kilns," Vuori says.
Utilizing the outdoors
Nowadays, in addition to waste heat, we know how to utilize environmental heat sources, especially outdoor air energy. Thanks to the heat pump technology developed by Calefa, it is possible to utilize outdoor air energy from freezing temperatures to warm temperatures, even to temperatures so high that the energy can be used in district heating networks.
New hybrid plants can utilize both waste heat sources and outdoor air energy. Hybrid plants can produce C02-free energy at different times of the year for the needs of district heating companies or industry.
“When we reach even higher temperatures than today, the number of applications will expand even further, and we can replace more of the energy produced by burning,” says Petri Vuori.
Calefa Ltd.
– Implement total energy solutions based on heat pump technology for industry, energy production plants and large properties
– Products: modular AmbiHeat heat pump plant that utilizes ambient energy and waste heat reuse systems as a retrofit installation
– Product design in Hollola and manufacturing in Ikaalisi
– Delivered approximately 2013 energy systems utilizing waste and environmental energy since 200
