Finnish process engineering SME converting hazardous industrial waste into reusable raw materials using modular, deployable process technology.
EPSE OY is a Finnish technology SME working at the intersection of resource extraction and industrial waste management. Their work focuses on developing process solutions that recover valuable raw materials — both from small high-grade mineral deposits and from hazardous industrial waste streams. They design and apply modular, deployable process equipment that can be brought to the material source rather than requiring centralized infrastructure. Their commercial proposition sits squarely in the circular economy: turning what industry discards as waste back into reusable input materials.
EPSETECH (2019–2021), which EPSE coordinated with EUR 1.9M in EC funding, was explicitly titled 'From Hazardous Waste to Reusable Raw Materials', indicating this is their lead commercial and technical offering.
IMPaCT (2016–2020) involved developing integrated modular plant and containerised tools for selective, low-impact mining of small high-grade deposits, a domain where EPSE contributed as a specialist partner.
Participation in IMPaCT, which centred on containerised and modular plant design for remote or small-scale mining sites, implies hands-on engineering capability in deployable process systems.
EPSETECH's framing — converting hazardous waste into secondary raw materials — positions EPSE within the circular economy manufacturing loop, likely extending into industrial symbiosis applications.
EPSE entered H2020 in 2016 as a participant in a sustainable mining project, contributing specialist process knowledge to a broader consortium tackling selective, low-impact extraction from small deposits. By 2019 they had developed enough independent capability and market vision to coordinate their own SME Instrument Phase 2 project — a significant step up in both leadership and ambition. The thematic shift is from mining inputs (extracting raw materials from the ground) toward waste outputs (recovering raw materials from what industry throws away), suggesting EPSE is pivoting toward the industrial waste treatment market as a higher-value, more scalable business opportunity.
EPSE appears to be building a commercial product or service around hazardous waste valorisation, making them a likely partner for projects dealing with industrial waste streams, secondary raw materials, or critical material recovery from end-of-life processes.
EPSE has demonstrated both roles: consortium partner and project coordinator, with the coordinator role coming in their more recent and better-funded project. Their SME Instrument Phase 2 coordination indicates they can lead a project and manage deliverables, not just contribute technical components. With 12 unique partners across 6 countries across just two projects, they work in moderately sized, international consortia rather than narrow bilateral arrangements.
EPSE has connected with 12 distinct consortium partners across 6 countries in only two projects, suggesting they build new partnerships actively rather than recycling the same network. Their geographic spread across multiple European countries despite being a small Finnish SME indicates outward-facing collaboration habits.
EPSE occupies a rare niche as a small Finnish process engineering firm that bridges mineral extraction technology and industrial waste treatment — two fields that share underlying chemistry and process equipment but are rarely combined by a single SME. Their ability to coordinate a nearly EUR 2M EU project as a small company signals genuine technical maturity and project management capability. For consortium builders, they bring both hands-on process engineering and the credibility of having led a funded innovation project to market readiness.
