Soilfood is building a processing plant in Loviisa to produce a unique circular lime for industrial use, the first of its kind on the Nordic market. The raw material is derived from side streams of the forest industry. The investment is valued at around one million euros.

“This innovative circular product gives industry the opportunity for significant emission reductions, as the carbon footprint of circular lime is more than 95% lower than that of virgin slaked lime,” says Soilfood Group CEO Eljas Jokinen.

Construction of the plant will begin in September, with customer deliveries starting in early 2026. In its first year, the facility will produce around 6,000 tonnes of slaked lime for industrial applications.

A patent application has been filed for the underlying innovation.

“The quality of our lime matches that of the virgin products industry is currently using. We are proud of this achievement – ten years ago, the raw material we now use was still regarded as waste. Today, both the production process and product quality have been refined to a level where consistency and security of supply for industrial customers can be guaranteed,” Jokinen explains.

The concept is scalable and replicable, also internationally.

“The circular economy field is full of promises and good intentions. For us, this has been everyday reality for a decade already,” Jokinen adds.

Major environmental benefits for lime-using industries

Traditionally, slaked lime is produced by quarrying limestone and calcining it at around 1,000°C, typically using natural gas as fuel.

By contrast, circular lime offers dramatic environmental benefits: while conventional slaked lime production generates around 900 kg of CO₂ emissions per tonne, Soilfood’s recycled lime generates only 20 kg per tonne. With the planned annual output, the Loviisa plant could help avoid 5,400 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.*

“This solution gives industry the opportunity to cut emissions substantially – without compromising the quality or effectiveness of the lime used. Our principle is that our circular products must always win on quality, price, or impact,” Jokinen assures.

Lime plays a central role in many industrial processes: in paints, bricks, steel, construction materials, car tyres, and water purification. Lime is virtually everywhere around us – which makes the way it is produced more important.

Circular economy connects industry and agriculture

Founded in 2015, Soilfood is a Nordic circular economy company established to drive change: replacing virgin raw materials with recycled ones – at scale and at speed – while improving industrial resource efficiency and the sustainability of food production.

In ten years, Soilfood has processed more than 2 million tonnes of industrial side streams into products for agriculture and industry. Practice has shown that industry and agriculture are interdependent within the circular economy – and will continue to be so in the future.

“Our new lime product for industrial processes is a concrete example of how we increase the value of circular economy through product development. When the end product has value, the whole chain – from raw material producer to end user – benefits. Only this way can circular economy expand and become an attractive model,” Jokinen concludes.

Further information:


Eljas Jokinen
CEO, Soilfood Oy
Tel. +358 40 703 1442
eljas.jokinen@soilfood.fi

*The emissions calculation takes into account the product’s life cycle stages from raw material extraction to the manufacturing (cradle-to-gate). The calculation does not include customer transport or emissions from the use of the product. Of priority, primary data is used. Secondary data is used from Sphera Professional 2024.2 and Ecoinvent 3.11 LCA databases. The calculation was conducted in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards, where applicable. The calculation was carried out by Etteplan LTD in 2024. The emissions of the comparative product have been estimated based on publicly available EPD documentation from similar products.

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