Abstract

Every year, more than 1 billion tons of industrial solid waste are generated worldwide leading to waste management and environmental issues as well as significant cost of disposal supported by industry. During his Ph.D., Dr. Calvet explored the opportunity to reuse industrial solid waste as a source of secondary materials to develop composite ceramic materials. Ten years later, he created Seramic Materials Limited¹, a UAE-based Start-up Company that develops circular economy solution to upcycle industrial solid waste into value added ceramic products.

Figure 1: Pictures of (a) ReThink Seramic Flora, the world’s first 100% recycled material for high temperature thermal energy storage applications commercialized by Seramic Materials Ltd., and (b) 25 tons of Flora tested in StorEnergy’s pilot located in Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA) in Spain

Different industrial solid waste are mixed together to obtain the desired properties depending on the final application in the technical ceramic and construction materials markets. ReThink Seramic – Flora is the first commercial product of Seramic Material², which was developed for high temperature thermal energy storage (TES) up to 1250°C in renewable energy such as solar PV, wind, or concentrated solar power but also for waste heat recovery in industry and excess grid electricity thermal energy storage (ETES). This composite material was successfully tested in real conditions in a prototype in Plataforma Solar de Almeria in Spain by StorEnergy Doo (Serbia). 

References

1. Seramic Materials’ website on February 2023
2. Masdar News Website on February 2023: 

Location: Building 19, Level 3, Hall 1-2.