Our Story!
Imagine being able to know how to utilize the world's green resources in an optimal way.
Imagine knowing all of the useful contents in the plants we harvest. Imagine that all industries know how to process all biomaterial resources to gain an optimal yield. Imagine everyone getting a little more from what we harvest on our planet.
Now stop imagining. And start thinking Mantex - Innovation for our planet and its people.
All processes that refine or use harvested trees, plants or crops are influenced by variations in its properties. These variations impact yield and efficiency. Mantex provides an innovative and patented way to measure moisture contents with an unprecedented degree of accuracy in both samples and in-process organic material flows. Mantex can also detect any unwanted pollutants in wood chips and other biological materials.
For utility and process industries Mantex technology can enable shorter delays, decreased damage to machinery, increased yields and lower costs. Additionally, it is easier to determine the correct price of organic materials based on their dry content or energy content.
Globally we believe that combustion of renewables as well as the pulp and paper industry, the timber industry and the bio-fuel industry together have a turnover of more than EURO 1000 billion. One extremely important factor for profitability in these industries is how well they can use the commodities and handle the variations of moisture in it. Process improvements to compensate for variations in these process industries have a significant financial impact. We believe that there is a potential to bring out yield improvements on several percent in these industries.
Erik Oden, CEO Mantex AB
History
In the middle of the 1990's the assistant professor in Radiology Ragnar Kullenberg and the entrepreneurial material specialist Anders Ullberg founded Demetech, a company that uses x-ray technology to measure the bone density in the human body. The first employee at Demetech was the system engineer Fredrik Danielsson and Demetech was awarded the Frost and Sullivan award for product innovation in 2007.
The serial entrepreneur, Erik Odén, met the Demetech start up team as they started that venture in 1996. Erik became just as fascinated as the Demetech founder of what could be achieved with x-ray technology. In the years that followed, ideas about new applications and business opportunities were exchanged between Erik and the Demetech founders.
The seed idea to Mantex was formed when Erik on his summer vacation 2003 met with a forestry scientist. It was unveiled to him that there was a great need of products that measures the moist content of wood and other biomass. He was told that the products available on the market were not accurate and reliable enough.
A year later in 2004, Mantex founder team (Erik, Anders, Ragnar and Fredrik) was formed and they started to build Mantex together.
In 2005- 2006 the team carried out proof of concept trials. The trial results and some draft product ideas were presented to Holmen Paper. Holmen liked what they saw so much that they placed an order of a desktop prototype measurement unit.
In the beginning of 2007 Mantex started to develop that first unit. In the end of 2007 Mantex was accepted at the high tech incubator STING(Stockholm Innovation and Growth). The first prototype unit was delivered on time in February 2008.
Professor Mats Nylinder and Ph.D. student Mikael Hultnäs at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences evaluated the Holmen unit and the evaluation was a success. It was clear that moist content in spruce wood can be determined with the Mantex photon absorption method with good accuracy!