Bolwerk

Built, not advised.

Bolwerk takes technology from bench to plant-ready - from a single machine to a complete plant. First the concept is shaped and made solid. Then it is tested for real, with rapid prototyping and rigs that run at conditions. Then it is translated into a first-of-a-kind plant. AI runs through all three. Led by an engineer who has commissioned the plants your technology will one day have to live in.

What I do

Three steps. Each retires one risk and ends in something that runs.

Every step in the process reflects the maturity of the project. The steps apply to any part, machine or plant.

01 · Shape

Shape and solidify the concept.

In: an idea, a bench result, a claim. The concept is sharpened until it holds together - what it has to do, at what conditions, and what is still unknown. The roadmap to scale is written as a sequence of experiments, each with the question it answers, the conditions, the equipment and the cost. That retires the risk of testing the wrong thing. Not a strategy deck: thinking stops the moment it is clear what to build first.

Concept sharpened and made solid; critical unknowns named
Roadmap to scale, written as experiments
First-experiment design
Out: a costed plan. Days, fixed price.

02 · Prove

First testing, and rapid prototyping.

The first real test, built rather than described. Rapid prototyping. Test rigs and pilot skids, designed and built. Instrumentation and measurement methods you can defend. Campaigns run to the edges, on purpose, until the failure modes are known - and the data discipline so the number holds up when someone checks it. That retires the risk that it does not work at conditions. This is the anchor: the combination only Bolwerk offers.

Rigs and pilot skids: design, build, commissioning
In-house 3D printing: parts, fixtures and test pieces printed, tried and revised within days
Instrumentation, measurement and lab methods
Test campaigns to the edges, failure modes on record
Out: a pilot that runs for weeks, a clean dataset, a checkable report

03 · Scale

Translation to a first-of-a-kind plant.

Two endings, depending on what the technology is. Roll-out, for a machine or unit: from a working prototype to a producible, deployable one - design freeze, supplier chain, build and test procedures, documentation a fabricator can work from. Plant-ready, for a process: the design basis for the demo or first-of-a-kind plant, the data package investors and EPCs will accept, and the technical organisation a plant project needs. That retires the risk that the organisation cannot deliver the next unit.

Roll-out: design freeze, suppliers, build and test procedures
Plant-ready: design basis for the first-of-a-kind plant, data package for investors and EPCs
Document control, standards, HAZOP, test procedures
Out: a package, a team and an AI workflow that carry the technology independently forward

AI · the thread

AI is not a step. It runs through all three.

Built on your data, in your tools, with a human holding the pen. Nothing about your process goes into a tool you have not approved.

AI brings the structure, the overview and the complex data analysis. Model-independent and, where required, organised locally.

In Shape

Literature, patent, standards and permitting review at speed. Roadmap and cost scenarios.

In Prove

Data pipelines from rig to report. Automated, checkable reporting. Anomaly detection during campaigns. Document control that stays version-clean.

In Scale

Workflow tooling built into the team's own tools. The whole team fluent, not just the one person who likes it.

How it runs

No discovery phase that bills for a month.

Step one

A real conversation

Free, an hour, no pitch. You describe what you are trying to make work. I tell you honestly whether I am the right person, and what I would do first.

Step two

A scope you can say no to

A short written scope: what gets delivered, by when, what it costs, and what I need from you. Fixed scope or a set number of days per week - your call.

Step three

Work, in the open

I work inside your tools and your repository, not in a black box. Everything I build is documented so your team can keep running it after I leave.

Who this is for

A condition, not a sector. Deep-tech and cleantech ventures - start-up or scale-up - whose technology has to survive industrial conditions: pressure, temperature, corrosion, electrochemistry, real feedstocks. Oil & gas and the chemical industry are where the experience comes from; the market is technology that will one day have to live in that kind of environment. The background is mechanical engineering as well as process engineering, so the object can be a machine as readily as a process: machines, equipment, skids, pilots, plants. Single machines to complete plants.

Same work, different buyer. Investors who want a technical view before a round. Corporates with a venture arm. Subsidy programmes - EIC, RVO, DEI+ - that need a credible test plan and a pilot design.

One engineer, a whole network. The person who scopes the work is the person who does it. Around him: engineers, suppliers, fabricators, automation and electrical partners, testing labs - brought in per project. One accountable lead, the reach of a firm. Ask anyway

Next step

Have something that needs building?

Send a few lines about what you are working on. You will get a straight answer, including if that answer is that you do not need me.

Start a conversation