SurfCleaner

About SurfCleaner

SurfCleaner AB provides a distinctive water purification technology that separates and recovers floating contaminants. Founded in 1994 by the late Dr. Stig Lundbäck, a Swedish clinical physiologist, the company's genesis is rooted in his pioneering research on the human heart. In 1986, Dr. Lundbäck identified the heart's pumping mechanism as a Dynamic Adaptive Piston Pump (DAPP), a discovery that led him to develop artificial hearts and, subsequently, apply the same principles to environmental technology. This journey from medical science to cleantech was spurred by a request to adapt his pump technology for cleaning oil spills, leading to the creation of SurfCleaner. His daughter, Christina Lundbäck, now continues his legacy as a founder, driving the company's mission.

The company operates in the industrial water and wastewater treatment market, serving a diverse client base that includes refineries, oil ports, mining operations, power plants, and steel producers. Notable customers include Exxon Mobil, the Swedish Coast Guard, and various ports and refineries worldwide. SurfCleaner's business model involves direct sales and an expanding global distributor network across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas to market its separator systems. Revenue is generated from selling its specialized equipment, which helps clients reduce operational costs, comply with environmental regulations, and create new income streams by recovering and reselling by-products like oil.

SurfCleaner's core product is a skimmer separator hybrid that performs collection, separation, and recovery of surface pollutants in a single unit. The technology leverages gravimetric separation combined with variations in inflow, a process inspired by the DAPP principle. This design is highly energy-efficient, requiring no external pumps, hydraulics, or pneumatics, and can be operated automatically and remotely. The system effectively removes oil, diesel, sludge, and other debris, achieving up to 99.5% separation efficiency and reducing volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by up to 95%. The recovered oil contains less than 0.5% water, making it suitable for reuse, thereby supporting a circular economy. The product line includes models like the SCO 1000 for versatile and remote applications and the high-capacity SCO 8000 for larger industrial needs. In 2022, the company launched the SCW 6000, a model specifically designed to tackle floating sludge in wastewater treatment plants, turning it into a resource for biogas production.