Terrafame Unleashes Kelluu’s Autonomous Airships for Safe and Efficient Battery Chemicals Manufacturing

Kelluu’s hydrogen-powered airship, mounted with several spectral cameras, sensors, and scanners, gives Terrafame an accurate and dynamic 3D digital twin of its 60 km² industrial production site in Finland.

Terrafame, a responsible battery chemicals producer for electric vehicles, has selected Finnish airship development company Kelluu to provide accurate and geo-referenced terrain data for continuously monitoring its 60 km² industrial site in Finland.

The aerial monitoring has been done mainly using satellites or helicopters, battery-powered drones, or land-based surveys. 

Kelluu develops long-distance, self-flying, and hydrogen-powered airship concepts mounted with several spectral cameras, sensors, and scanners to gather real-time data on terrain, vegetation, and infrastructure. Kelluu then processes the data to create an accurate 3D digital twin of the environment, enabling Terrafame to monitor and forecast dynamic changes at the industrial site optimize its infrastructure maintenance and production processes, and further strengthen the environmental safety of the site.

The combination of high-resolution RGB, multispectral, and Flir images, combined with the same 3D mesh, is a fascinating tool, especially in a heap leaching and open pit slope stability modelling.

We’re happy to welcome Kelluu to the monitoring services we use to promote safety and efficiency at our Terrafame site.

says Aki Ullgren, Senior Geotechnical Engineer at Terrafame.

Kelluu’s airships are highly efficient, emitting 99.5% fewer CO2 emissions than traditional aerial monitoring, and frequently cover mission times of over 12 hours. The airships are effectively operational in subzero temperatures. Kelluu’s facility in Finland is the only airship factory and product development laboratory in Northern Europe.

It is truly mesmerizing to see the Kelluu’s airships in the air at Terrafame. We felt a strong connection with Terrafame’s commitment to positively impacting the world by reducing emissions of electromobility.

What Terrafame does for mobility, and we do it for aviation. Together, we provide increased safety using Kelluu’s breakthrough intelligent airship technology.

says Janne Hietala, CEO of Kelluu.

Terrafame enhances low-carbon mobility by delivering responsibly produced battery chemicals to the global battery industry. The company has one of the world’s largest production lines for chemicals used in electric car batteries on its industrial site in Finland. The plant can produce nickel sulphate for around 1 million electric cars annually. The carbon footprint of the nickel sulphate produced by Terrafame is among the smallest in the industry.

Terrafame’s integrated, unique, energy-efficient production process from the mine to battery chemicals provides its customers with a transparent, traceable, and truly European battery chemical supply chain.

As Terraframe produces hydrogen onsite and the airships are powered by hydrogen, Kelluu has built a ground base for its airships on Terrafame’s industrial site. Kelluu will autonomously transfer its airship from its current headquarters in Joensuu, Finland, to Terrafame’s base in Sotkamo.

In addition to Kelluu, Terrafame has multiple other partners helping to monitor its site and develop its operations and occupational and environmental safety.

Founded in 2018, Kelluu is currently raising its series A funding round. In addition to monitoring sites, such as mining and industrial production sites, Kelluu’s airships can safeguard biodiversity by monitoring large forest areas for pests, enabling quick action in case infected trees are detected.

Startup Reporter spoke with Janne Hietala, CEO of Kelluu

Janne emphasises the transformative potential of airships in aerial imaging and monitoring. Contrary to the initial perception of airships as novelties, Kelluu proves their industrial-scale efficiency.

Janne Hietala: – You have a lot of momentum in new space, in satellite companies, things like this and airships in general in people’s minds; it is an ancient concept.

What we are trying to change is to help people understand that airships used to be a good concept. One of our advisors is a former astronaut, Dr. Charles Camarda.

Hietala parallels SpaceX’s groundbreaking achievements, highlighting how Kelluu’s airships challenge the conventional norms in the industry. Where traditional aircraft would struggle, Kelluu’s technology seamlessly performs tasks, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in aerial monitoring.

– NASA said that some things couldn’t be done, and then you got SpaceX, especially the vertical landing of a rocket and reusability. They tried to do it with different programs like DC-X and the single stage to orbit, a national aerospace plane, but they couldn’t.

They tried, it was impossible, and then SpaceX did it – now it’s transformed all these space industries and enabled the new space.

I think people have the first impression of Kelluu and the airships, which will be some novelty hobbyist project.

Unlike multicopters or fixed-wing alternatives, Kelluu’s airships boast impressive capabilities. Fully controlled or autonomously flown, these airships have consistently performed with 4G and 5G connectivity over the last three years. 

Kelluu is not just a concept; it’s an operational reality. With a manufacturing facility, expanding operations, and a customer base, the company operates in a vast area, having weekly operations on the operation area of 35,000 square km. Residents in North Karelia frequently witness Kelluu’s airships engaged in commercial missions, marking a significant shift in aerial imaging and monitoring landscape.

Oleksandr Komarevych (StartupReporter.eu): – What is the Kelluu vision of 5-10 years?

Janne Hietala: – Well, let me start a little bit further. So, I’ve been an entrepreneur for the last 20 years.

My previous company was bootstrapped, which we built over 18 years, and I exited successfully. I retired and swear I will never go into a startup or do this again. Gonna just invest in the businesses.

I’m originally from this area as well. This is a rural area where you have a lot of forests and lots of beautiful nature I love to live here. I lived for 2 years in London with a previous startup when we scaled up the business globally.

I heard there were these crazy guys building airships in East Finland. It got my attention, and I wanted to see them and get involved. What I saw was more than just the airships. Thanks to my background in software and technology, I started thinking, “What can we do with this more?”

Tesla claimed they have the most real-world data collected through the cars driving on the surface of any company worldwide.

We can become more significant than that because we’re not just focused on roads, but we are focused on the environment.

There’s the missing layer of a high-resolution digital twin of the environment, which can be done with drones but in tiny areas because they only fly for a very short time.

The scale of the ability to fly autonomously at the autonomy level is just a tool that we will use to collect the data.

Data will be precious to solve the challenges regarding climate change, the environment, optimising forest growth, optimising agriculture, converting conserving water in agriculture, pollution or other fertilisers in agriculture, safety, and security simultaneously.

You’re implementing new kinds of satellites but staying perpetually in the air under the clouds.

The vision is really around the data and creating this digital twin.

We expect to solve only some of these challenges. We have the best platform for collecting high-resolution data economically and without emissions.

We can open it up to other parties that create economic value and benefit through that.

OK: – Tell more about the Kelluu team.

Janne Hietala: – We’ve been expanding the team since 2016 it was created.

The founder, Jouni Lintu (lead scientist), started thinking about how to do this drone service business properly. Then he started to think about Lighter than Air.

He had a vision, and the original prototypes were produced in a barn in 2018.

All great companies are founded in a garage, but brilliant ones are founded in a barn….

They started experimenting with radio-controlled drones or airships that use hydrogen as a lifting gas. The average flight duration was about the 60s before the total disaster.

Imagine going from that into the current multi-day range that we have now.

It takes a lot of effort and development, and we’ve had to solve many engineering problems: to be lightweight enough, to develop the control systems, the flight planning systems, all these different systems that don’t exist for Lighter than Air.

Last year, the team was focused on research and development. That’s when I joined the conversation, and my passion is to grow the business.

Last summer, we reached the milestone of 12 h mission. This is 10 times better than anything in the market.

We hired Niko Kuikka as a production manager from an existing industrial factory about 5 kilometres from our location; he was managing 110 people there. He was a great addition to the Kelluu team.

During that hiring period, we got to know Frederick Wassermann, who has international experience with Bundeswehr. He was in one of the top operations management consulting firms in Germany. Then he went to work for one of his customers in South France, where he ran the factory, and he moved with his whole family to Finland to join us.

Then we have a brilliant engineering team, JP Henderson; he’s a Ph. D. He is originally from New Zealand and studied in Japan and the UK. He moved to Finland and works with us as a lead engineer.

We also have brilliant data people with different backgrounds and like the rest of us approaching completely new problems with technology and solutions that have not yet been done in the world.

I like technology a lot. We have many different kinds of hardware, embedded software and cloud software. I do like to go into the weeds of engineering to understand and ask many dumb questions. But that’s the best way to also think about the scaling of the business. You must understand how these parts of the operation, manufacturing, engineering, software, data, and customer acquisition play together.

And that’s what I do. You need to be a quick learner about different things. I build a basic understanding and abstract these concepts, then reflect these things into business and for example in to financial forecasts.

My job is also to get the resources required. I work a lot in recruiting to have the right talent in the right places for the right growth stage. Then, communicate the Kelluu vision effectively. That’s my role to grow the business.

OK: – What is your team culture?

Janne Hietala reflects on his privileged collaboration with Dr. Charles Camarda, a renowned expert with a rich history at NASA. Dr. Camarda’s insights have profoundly influenced Hietala’s approach to building high-performing engineering teams.

Janne Hietala: – Dr. Camarda emphasises the importance of visionary inspiration and epic challenges in motivating teams. Creating a multidisciplinary and psychologically safe environment is crucial for collaboration.

In aviation, even when pushing boundaries, safety remains paramount. I underscore the importance of careful consideration, especially when dealing with hydrogen, and the need for intelligent and safe failure in development.

As an advisor, Dr. Camarda has played a pivotal role in shaping the team’s culture. His recent week-long visit to Finland was dedicated to spending time with the team, providing inspiration, and reinforcing the importance of tackling societal challenges.

I can describe the team culture as flat but deeply rooted in professionalism. While working hard, we also value informal time and encourage free-flowing idea generation. The team’s approach involves experimentation in research and development, yet in operational aspects, the focus is on reliable, repeatable, and safe operations.

OK: – Is there any book you like so much that you can give it to others as a gift?

Janne Hietala: – One book given to me as a gift is “Organizing Genius” by Warren Bennis. I would probably give that.