April the 27th, 2022 - The Croatian company Premifab has presented its innovative idea to tackle the issue of distillation sludge. The company is already very well known and respected in hazardous waste regeneration.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, Marija Brnic writes, last week, during the visit of the Minister of Economy Tomislav Coric, the Croatian company Premifab from Sveta Nedelja, which is the regional market leader in hazardous waste regeneration, revealed that it is continuing to develop and invest 80 million kuna in a new plant in Ivanic Grad, and it has recently taken a step even further.

In cooperation with the Faculty of Geotechnics at the University of Zagreb, the Croatian company Premifab began to develop innovative piece of technology in the development of the recovery of distillation sludge into a useful raw material for further production processes in industry. The value of the project stands at more than 13.3 million kuna, half of which is being co-financed by European Union (EU) funds.

Igor Podravac, the co-founder of Premifab and the director of the company's business development, associate professor Aleksandra Anic Vucinic and Silvija Petkovic, a PhD student at the Faculty of Geotechnics and the head of quality control and labs at Premifab presented the significance of this project for industry and a more sustainable economy at a conference which was held at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).

This was otherwise the inaugural conference of the IRI2 project "The development of new technology for the more efficient recovery of solvents and other types of hazardous waste", one of 23 Croatian projects in the field of research, development and innovation.

In the five years since it appeared on the market, the Croatian company Premifab has introduced a new standard in the regeneration of hazardous waste by converting as much as 95 percent of waste into raw materials, which it then returns to the shipper in the form of reusable solvents.

It deals mainly the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, as well as in the production of food packaging, and it already recovers more than 1,900 tonnes of solvents per year.

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ZAGREB, 19 April 2022 - Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić on Tuesday visited the Premifab company in Zagreb which recycles and processes hazardous waste and returns 95% of it into production.

Premifab cofounder Igor Podravac said the company used hazardous waste to make a solvent and that it was totally CO2 neutral, without any harmful emissions.

In Croatia, the company mostly covers the pharmaceutical and automobile industries as well as the production of food packaging. It generates 35% of its revenue in the region, cooperating with the car industries of Serbia and Slovenia, the Slovenian pharmaceutical industry, and several companies in Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ćorić said the company was a good example of the circular economy Croatia needed, notably in the processing of hazardous as well as other types of waste.

He said 1,600 tonnes of solvent waste from various companies arrived in Premifab every year, where it was processed so that 95% was returned to senders in the form of a solvent that could be reused.

"In this way, Premifab participates in Croatia's waste management system in the best possible way," he said, adding that it also reduces the import of solvent waste.

Premifab will next invest HRK 80 million in a new, much bigger plant in Ivanić Grad, Ćorić said, adding that it is the only company in Croatia regenerating solvent waste.

He went on to say that incentives for electric cars could be increased this year and that he was sorry the transfer to a circular economy and renewables was not more dynamic in the years when it could be done without major shocks.

Ćorić is confident the energy crisis will cement the orientation to green energy in Croatia and elsewhere in the EU in the long term, and that incentives will be increased next year for including renewables in industrial production as well as among private clients.