History

Meri was originally founded in 1990 in Munich, Germany by 2 Engineers and Businessman. Originally, it was planned, to supply mainly DAF (dissolved Air Flotation) Technology to a wider range of industries but within a short time Paper Industry turned out to be the by fare demanding and most interesting area to work, two of the original founders left. In 1992 Mr. Lucas A. Menke called his Ex- Colleague Dr. George Troubounis to join meri, and since both, as a successful Team pushed the Application Technology and Equipment Development for the Paper Industry.

In the 90ties News Print and Graphical papers from recycled paper had a significant boom.

Recycled fiber stock, reduced specific water consumption & fast running Paper Machines have been suffering from a significant problem: – Micro Stickies – small sticky glewing substances which created holes & defects in the produced paper.  meri was the first company, which introduced to the market a special water loop treatment using a combination of precipitation, flocculation and flotation (DAF) to remove Micro Sticky Contaminants from the water loops and so with from the production process. In consequence, hundreds of production plants WW have been equipped with this new Technology.

The meri Team always believed into integrated technologies and cross process synergies, and so beside further equipment for internal water loop treatment contiguous process technologies as e.g. filtration, sludge dewatering, chemical preparation have been developed, in order to offer to paper industry customers complete solutions.

The “In House Product Development” @ meri has been established from the beginning, as paper industry customer satisfaction could only be reached with special sturdy designed equipment, which could stand the high production requirements, performance and mainly longtime availability.

In late 1992 Meri and VOITH started the first corporation providing water treatment solutions to international customers, which turned out to be a successful cooperation which was highly appreciated by customers.

In 1994 VOITH and SULZER Papertec merged to VOITH SULZER, this time environmental technologies were not of the primary interest, and so VOITH SULZER and meri came to agree a 50/50 Joint Venture the “Meri Environmental Solutions GmbH”. Meri Environmental Solutions developed the WSR- Subsystem Technology for Water, Sludge and Reject and from there on operated as responsible Competence Center for Environmental Technologies for paper industry applications.

In 1994 and the first US meri the North-America Regional Office has been established to support better the local NAFTA markets which until today is under the lead of Brad Leitner and his Lead Team.

The idea to create a product portfolio, which can supply all necessary machines for WSR Sub- Systems out of one hand, was followed consequently. New further developments have been executed in the area of Reject and Residual – Handling. First ideas of Reject Incineration and Up- Cycling have been established, and respective developments for machinery had been started.

In 1997 the Meri South America Regional Office has been established in São Paulo, Brazil.

In 1999 new concepts of 3D- modular design have been tested and further developed with the target to establish a partnership based sourcing concept, with the target to be able to deliver high-quality competitive equipments worldwide but as well locally manufactured.

In the early 2000’s the idea of WSR Sub Systems out of one hand including the respective engineering and necessary auxiliaries got very successful as well as for new Green Field paper production plants and as well for the upgrade of existing paper mills.

In these years environmental topics gained significant importance, not only because of related regulations but as well because of operational cost. And Last, but not least the environmental image for paper production companies got significant more important for their customers and the final users.

Meri built up additional engineering capacity in all offices and pushed further product and project development. The new sourcing concept turned out to be very successful and could provide good quality of equipment during peak machine-delivery requirements.

Meri WSR subsystems got established as the state-of-the-art by being used for most of the world wide new production plants.

In late 2006 VOITH increased its shares at Meri Environmental Solutions GmbH and established VPES (Voith Paper Environmental Solutions). VPES put, in addition to original meri WSR Sub System Portfolio, high efforts in the development of Biological Anaerobic Effluent Treatment. meri USA installed since 2009 successfully Biological Anaerobic Effluent in many Paper Mills to increase discharge capacity and reduce their cost to Municipal Treatment Plants.

In 2011 and the following years VOITH and the paper industry suffered from the significant reduction of graphical papers and production plants, so VPES was dissolved and meri took over the Biological Anaerobic Effluent Technology and develop it further to perfection.

Having available now all Technologies around a recycled paper mill meri developed further the Technologies and Product Portfolio and established the so-called “Integrated Recycled Paper Mill Concept” which provides multiple synergies when Peripheral Systems are further integrated with the production process.

Out of one hand meri could provide all peripheral systems, from material handling to fresh water preparation, internal water loop management, handling of reject and residuals, effluent treatment, waste to energy (W2E) plants to supply fuel to internal mill incineration plants for energy generation.

In order to give better local support to important customers, and keep up with them increasing demand of equipment, in 2015 meri has established a China Regional Office and Production Center  the Meri Environmental Technology (Kunshan) Co., Ltd., under the lead of Feng Wang and Dawson Shi who have been working with us at meri since a decade.

For the new China meri Regional Office meri could significantly increase his presence in mainland China and Asia.

The experience from global sourcing with local production could be fully adapted for meri owned China production plant in combination with local sourcing partners.

In the following Years meri as advanced to be the Sole and Leading Technology Partner suppling for new Paper Production Plants all Peripheral Systems as considered for the “Integrated Recycled Paper Mill” out of one Hand.

In 2018 meri decided in a partnership with Pro-Group to install the first “Bio Kidney-Lime Trap” –System to run a brand new high performance paper mill (2.500 bdmt/d) without wastewater effluent, which today sets a new benchmark in Environmental Performance and Sustainability for the Paper Industry World Wide.

In 2021 the Founders Mr. Lucas A. Menke & Dr. George Troubounis after 30 Years have decided to hand over the Operational Business Lead to the next generation, which they have been working together for decades, under the lead of Manlio Ronga and his Lead Team, and now under the total shareholders hip of VOITH.

Lucas A. Menke & Dr. George Troubounis will support the meri Team and continue their activities as “Senior Experts” in special projects and for further development of products and technologies.