Engineering the impossible

”𝘏𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘭 𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩.” – Marcus Weibull, CEO at Sigma Lundinova AB.

In our last post we met the entrepreneur who enabled the idea. In this episode we tell the love story between the entrepreneur and the engineers, through the eyes of Marcus Weibull, CEO at Sigma Lundinova.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐁𝐒?
“I actually remember that meeting very clearly, because it was such a bizarre story. Although now it’s filtered through a romantic haze in my mind.
John explained the idea of an ozone generator that would handle humid air, and he showed us a rough pencil sketch from a bar in Thailand. It made a very strong impression, you could say.”

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭?
“Our team has a soft spot for engineering products that bring real-world value. That, plus John’s fantastic personality made it very compelling.”

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭?
“One of the first and biggest milestones was when we managed to test and verify the idea. For a while we were quite unsure if it really would work, because no one had done it before, in that way.”

What’s truly unique is PBS’s patented ozone cell, completely isolating the gas stream from all electronics. Everything else was custom-designed around that core, including the transformer creating a 30 kV high voltage field where ozone is generated from the oxygen in the air.

“That was our major challenge. At those voltages you have some interesting phenomenon happening with the air. We just couldn’t have surrounding air without the machine catching fire. We tried a lot, nothing worked, until we came up with the idea to use oil as the surrounding medium. That worked and was our second big milestone.”

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬 𝐯𝐬 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬?
“A common situation with startups is technical immaturity. Founders often don’t understand technical requirements, why it takes so long or costs so much. But working with John has been fantastic! He has unconditional faith in what we do, and has always been very supportive of our progress.”

Marcus closes with some heartfelt encouragement:

“We really hope that John gets the big breakthrough he’s been waiting for and so richly deserves. When it happens, it will bring great joy. Not just to John and us, but to all the people who will benefit from his product.”

In the next episode we meet Magnus Tångring at Volvo CE who tells the success story of using PBS’s system in their water treatment.

Text and interview: Johanna Swartling
Picture: The evolution of the H-unit (ozone generator) 2016-2025