Dr. Nicolas Calvet joined the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, which is now part of Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University, in 2013. Dr. Calvet joined the Masdar Institute as an Assistant Professor and established the Masdar Institute Solar Platform, the UAE’s first platform dedicated to research and development on Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Thermal Energy Storage (TES).
Dr. Calvet created a thesis that was the first in the world to demonstrate that industrial solid waste could be recycled into value-added ceramic materials in TES applications for his Ph.D. from 2007 to 2010. Dr. Calvet was able to recognise the possibility of recovering steel slag from the metal sector for energy storage applications after finishing his Ph.D. degree.
Dr. Calvet continued to work on trash upcycling while in Masdar, developing a research project with Emirates Steel and two of his students, Ms. Kholoud Al Naimi and Mr. Uver Villalobos. “On February 22, 2018, my research team applied and received the first worldwide patent for recycling industrial steel waste into innovative ceramics at Khalifa University,” Dr. Calvet proudly declared.
Dr. Calvet collaborated with Dr. Jean-Francois Hoffmann in October 2018 to establish a start-up aiming at creating and commercialising recycled advanced ceramics. In 2019, they expanded and established Seramic Materials Limited, a Seramic subsidiary, with the financial help of a new investor, Dr. Khalid Al Ali, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Khalifa University.
“The Green Tiles produced by Seramic Material are the first recycled tiles accessible in the GCC market at a comparable or even lower cost than traditional luxury goods.”
Seramic Materials Limited has been named as one of the firms that will benefit from the second round of funding for the Masdar-BP program The Catalyst in January 2020. The startup received a US$150,000 grant, as well as two-floor laboratory space, office space, and display space at Masdar City’s Tech Park. The park, which opened in March 2019, is a destination for technology, sustainability, and digital economy start-ups.
So, how exactly does Seramic Materials work? The concept arose from repurposing something abundant and low-cost – garbage – into valuable things. “With over ten years of experience in waste upcycling, Seramic Resources’ know-how is the formulation of value-added ceramic goods that are locally created utilising up to 100 percent recycled industrial materials.” Garbage management might be viewed as a significant burden for business, but Seramic sees these collected waste piles as a great opportunity,” stated Dr. Calvet, CEO of Seramic.
“The waste is usually post-processed by crushing, sieving, or mixing to make a fine powder that is used as a secondary raw material and from which we make sustainable: construction materials such as floor and wall tiles for indoor and outdoor use, which we call Green Tiles, and technical ceramics such as high-temperature thermal energy storage materials, among other things.” The new goods’ composition is patented in order to safeguard and expand Seramic Materials’ Intellectual Property (IP).”
Seramic Material’s Green Tiles are the first recycled tiles to be accessible in the GCC market at prices comparable to or lower than traditional luxury goods. These are high-quality tiles with comparable qualities including low water absorption and excellent mechanical strength.
“We’re also working on the first inexpensive technical ceramic for energy storage, a game-changer that can operate at greater temperatures (over 600 degrees Celsius) and compete with molten salt – the state of the art in this sector.” According to Dr. Calvet. “ReThink Seramic will be the name of the new product since we are completely rethinking the way to manufacture these kinds of value-added products by pursuing a near-zero waste aim to promote the circular economy,” he explains.
A circular economy is an economic structure that aims to generate no waste or pollution. The goal is to eventually disconnect economic activity from the use of limited resources and waste creation. To do this, conventional garbage is reused, mended, recycled, and repurposed in a different phase of the manufacturing process of the product that generated the waste, or even in the production process of a different product entirely. A product will not reach the end of its useful life in a closed-loop system since it may be transformed into something fresh and beneficial. Waste may be exploited as a key source of product manufacturing.
Seramic Materials intends to show, validate, and improve its business model in the GCC region before expanding into global markets. “Our aim is to cooperate with existing manufacturers since they frequently have accessible trash and a period of idleness when we may make our ceramic materials from that waste,” Dr. Calvet added. They maximise their production time and workforce, eliminate waste management challenges, and develop a new stream of revenue by cooperating with us.”
Seramic Materials will save a significant amount of capital expenditure by adapting an existing facility to their manufacturing process rather than investing in a new plant. Because garbage is everywhere, the company’s objective is to expand quicker and to target the entire world. “It’s a win-win-win scenario for Seramic Materials, our industrial partners, and our clients since they now have access to a new form of sustainable product that is manufactured locally and is frequently less expensive than conventional ceramic materials,” Dr. Calvet explains.
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