Colubris Cleantech is a Dutch family business, founded in 1984 as Redes Machinebouw & Constructie.
In the beginning, the focus was mainly on wastewater treatment and the organisation acquired several companies to continue growing. Colubris has also developed complete technologies for separating and processing waste and plant residues.
Colubris employs 115 people and has a factory with offices in Winterswijk and a research facility in Wageningen. In addition, they have a number of foreign sales offices that are also responsible for service in the region and an extensive agent network. Colubris supplies individual sub-installations but can also deliver complete turn-key projects. They take care of all development and engineering themselves, but can, if the customer wishes, also provide assembly or even management of the installations.
Colubris can be briefly described as a system provider of separation and purification technologies. We offer a complete package of solutions and processes for water treatment and purification, waste recycling and bio-resources. With these solutions, we can contribute to the complex environmental issues of our time.
Within the organisation, there has always been a focus on reusing materials. This is also why Colubris started working with two scientists about 10 years ago. They investigated how food waste could be converted into nutrients suitable for human consumption. With the new technology they developed, food waste can be converted into four end products without waste. Namely sugar syrup, dried protein powder, dried fibre and clean water. And these ingredients can be used again for sports drinks, bread and much more. Meanwhile, the technology has already been applied to various fruits and vegetables, such as carrots, onions and orange peels. However, it is important that there is a critical mass of waste streams, with mono streams (waste streams of one product) providing a higher yield.
Tillmann says: "In 2020, we got in touch with Naylor Farms, one of the largest producers of white cabbage in Europe. Naylor is a leading supplier in the UK and is nicknamed the Cabbage King. They grow white, red and pink cabbages, among others. Each day, processing cabbage creates more than 100,000 kg of residual waste. Until now, this has always been used as low-value animal feed. But through our processes, we can add value and Naylor can resell it as ingredients."
Two years of testing with Naylor's cabbage was carried out to prove that the technology works and the end products meet market demand. An external research firm was used to validate this.
Subsequently Simon Naylor, of Naylor Farms, formed a new company, Naylor Nutrition. And under Naylor Nutrition, an application has been made to Colubris for the turn-key supply and installation of a biorefinery. This is a project of several tens of millions of euros, using a seven-year buyer's credit. Colubris has insured both the manufacturing risk and the credit risk with Atradius Dutch State Business. Invest International is providing the financing and Naylor Nutrition is using a foreign guarantor in this transaction.
We are very positive about the cooperation with Atradius DSB and Invest International. They came on site, both in the Netherlands and the UK, and a very thorough ESG analysis was done. We are therefore proud to have passed this audit positively.
With an increasing focus on circularity worldwide, Colubris sees more than enough opportunities. With large mountains of waste and scarcity of water, they see the greatest growth at the moment in reuse of waste streams and wastewater treatment. Here, emerging countries in particular are skipping a few steps to use raw materials more efficiently. To enter new markets, the area sales managers participate annually in 10-15 trade fairs and events around the world where food or greening is central. But they also join trade missions to find new projects.
Finally, it is nice to mention that another project we did with Atradius DSB is currently in its final stages. At the airport in Bangalore, India, catering waste from aircraft is collected by electric cars and then separated using a special plant. The organic waste is then used to generate gas through fermentation and then converted for those same electric trolleys. A great project that will be completed within a few months.
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