Södermanland County Administrative Board says the file Senior Material has offered to replace methylene chloride is incomplete. The company, with a plant in Eskilstuna, makes separator film for car batteries. In summer it announced a new method without the toxic solvent. It opened a samråd — a consultation — before applying to change its environmental permit. P4 Sörmland reported it first.

“We lack quite a few facts we need to play our part in the consultation,” says Jörgen Johansson, head of environmental protection at the county board. SVT notes the proposed substances can irritate skin, cause allergic skin reaction and serious eye irritation. That is the consultation material, not a permit verdict.

Senior listed four replacements: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate, trimethylolpropane monooleate, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide, and 2-(trimethylammonio)acetate as a salt with 2-hydroxypropane-1,2,3-tricarboxylic acid. Eskilstuna municipality writes that methylene chloride would be replaced mainly by imidazole-based mixes already used in industry. Consultation ran 10 August–30 September 2026. It is not a permit. The permit comes later from the Environmental Permitting Delegation at Uppsala County Administrative Board.

Cecilia Vallin, Senior’s CEO, wrote to SVT that some questions will be clarified in later papers, then in the environmental impact assessment and the permit application. A group of eight Eskilstuna business owners, Företagarna, also asked for more answers.

The plant’s environmental file is older and contested: in February 2026 the same Uppsala delegation rejected an interim request from Eskilstuna’s planning board about a provisional rule on methylene chloride air emissions at the Grönsta properties. That ruling is not about the new method. The new method is still at the file-prep stage.

Nobody has approved the chemical switch yet. Sörmland’s county board wants a clearer file. Senior says it will complete it.

Image: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, Munktell Science Park, Eskilstuna, 14 July 2019, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. An industrial park in the city, not Senior’s Grönsta plant.

Sources consulted: Länsstyrelsen: Otydligt hur Senior ska ersätta metylenklorid — SVT Nyheter; Senior Materials etablering – Tillstånd och tillsyn — Eskilstuna kommun.