New technology for increased global productivity within forestry and agriculture

Purpose and goal

The project aim is to deliver a practical solution for producing high quality Norway spruce seedlings at a competitive cost through somatic embryogenesis (SE) by developing an automated SE factory. The automation should cover the SE process from embryo production in bioreactors to transplanting the established germinants in greenhouse or growth chamber. The project is supported by forest companies Bergvik Skog, Holmen, Sveaskog and Södra Skogsägarna. The objectives for the SE4 project were two new automated features Germination Platform (GP) and Automated Planting System (APS).

Expected results and effects

The result is an automated pilot system. Production of germinants was lower than the target because the available cell lines had low yields due to aging, resulting in fewer embryos and a negative impact on the quality of the germinants. The new automated features (GP and APS) did not reach the desired level of maturity implying that continuous operation was not reached. However, SweTree and the forestry companies´ decision is to continue investing in this technology showing the potential to significantly increase the the efficiency and profitability for forestry.

Planned approach and implementation

The goal of the Project was to develop a fully automated system for SE-plant production. For this purpose two additional steps needed to be automatized. In designing and implementation of these two new technologies we kept the function of the full system in focus as well as the robust function of the two new parts. Practically this was an iterative process where hardware, protocols and biology were developed together. It proved a successful way to work that we will further adopt while continuing to develop a robust and cost efficient SE-plant production system.