Marcus Wallenberg prize-winner improves paper machine efficiency.

MARCUS WALLENBERG PRIZE-WINNER IMPROVES PAPER MACHINE EFFICIENCY. The Marcus Wallenberg Prize for 2004 will be awarded to the Finnish engineer Paul Olof Meinander. The Prize includes an award of SWK 2 million. Meinander developed a significant modification of the design of the paper machine that improves both the efficiency of the economic and the environmental performance. The new design is called the POM Wet End Concept. Meinander developed the idea and then designed and built machinery that proved the concept. With the new POM-Technology the size of the wet end of paper machine systems can be greatly reduced. There are significant savings in capital costs and energy.

Paul Olof Meinander, MSc, born 1941, is founder and president of POM Technology Oy Ab. He graduated from Helsinki University of Technology in 1966 and served for 25 years in various positions in Finland, Italy and Germany for the Ahlstrom Corp. before founding the company in 1993 to commercialize the POM Concept.

The Marcus Wallenberg Prize was established in 1980 by Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags AB, which has since merged with the Finnish company Enso to form the Stora Enso Group. The Prize is awarded through the auspices of the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for the Promotion of Scientific Research in the Forest Products Industry. The 2004 Marcus Wallenberg Prize will be presented to the prize-winner by H. M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.