Does Belgian industry still have a future?
In short
- The future of Belgian industry depends on strategic investments in sustainable technologies and collaborations with other European countries.
- Our university recently established the Electrification Institute, to play an active role in the evolution towards climate neutrality, the European goal for 2050.
- The innovative plasma technology converts CO₂ to CO, a useful basic component that can be reused.
- Spin-off D-CRBN is considered a reference project for climate technology and aims to become a worldwide player in CO₂ recycling.
- Only a small percentage of Flemish research actually leads to product development.
Given the recent closure of several major production plants and the current economic climate, the future of Belgian industry doesn’t look very bright. This situation threatens our prosperity. Fortunately, lots of UAntwerp scientists are committed to making our industry future-proof. Chemistry professor Annemie Bogaerts and entrepreneur Gill Scheltjens, co-founders of Antwerp-based start-up D-CRBN, a spin-off of Bogaert’s research group PLASMANT, are helping industry to become greener by making CO2 storage redundant. And Svetlana Samsonova, valorisation manager at our university, bridges the gap between innovative scientific research and practical implementation in industry.
‘CO2 recycling as the holy grail’
‘Our Belgian industry plays a very big role in the sustainable transition,’ says chemistry professor Annemie Bogaerts (Faculty of Science). ‘After all, it’s much more sustainable than in the rest of the world, due to our strict regulations. That’s where we have to continue to make a difference.’ Bogaerts is therefore fully committed to large-scale CO2-recycling with plasma technology in her research and co-founded the new Electrification Institute.
Belgium’s sustainable industry
Audi Forest, nylon manufacturer Nyobe, bus maker Van Hool, chemical company Celanese, paper manufacturer Sappi, nappy manufacturer Ontex, textile companies Balta, Beaulieu and McThree, etc. The list of recent factory closures and restructurings in our country goes on and immediate improvements aren’t on the horizon. However, industry is a crucial sector for our economy: it accounts for half of company spending on research and development, it’s responsible for more than half of our exports, it leads the field when it comes to the implementation of AI, and a whole ecosystem of service companies and suppliers is linked to it. ‘Moreover, industry also plays a very big role in the sustainable transition,’ Bogaerts says. ‘Our industry is much cleaner and more sustainable than in the rest of the world. If we outsource our industrial activities to other continents, we’ll have much less control over it. That’s certainly not going to help global warming.’
What is plasma technology?
Unfortunately, however, our industry is having a tougher time than in the rest of the world. The biggest problems? High labour costs and energy prices that are considerably higher. And then there are uncertainties about permits and nitrogen emission regulations. And that’s where Bogaerts’ research comes in. She is a worldwide authority on plasma technology and is investigating how this can contribute to reducing CO₂ emissions, one of the biggest challenges facing industry.
‘Plasma is the fourth state of matter, besides solid, liquid and gas. It’s created when gases are heated or electrically charged very strongly. One thing we use plasma for is to convert CO₂ molecules into carbon monoxide (CO), which is a useful basic component and can be reused,’ Bogaerts explains. ‘This way, we can prevent CO₂ from ending up in the atmosphere and contribute to a circular economy. In addition, we’re also using plasma technology to make many other chemical processes more sustainable via electrification.’
Electrification Institute
Our university recently established the Electrification Institute, to play an active role in the evolution towards climate neutrality, the European goal for 2050. ‘In the future, electrification will make fossil fuels redundant in industry,’ Bogaerts believes. With her expertise in plasma technology, she herself is one of the key figures at the new institute, alongside Tom Breugelmans, who specialises in electrochemical engineering techniques, and Patrice Perreault, an expert in heat-based process electrification. The new institute brings together more than 100 researchers.
Bogaerts stresses that the electrification of industrial processes is essential to reduce CO₂ emissions: ‘In our laboratory, we’re already doing this successfully on a small scale, but if we want to generate real impact, we need to scale up these processes. For that you need a lot of renewable energy, so that requires big investments in electrical infrastructure.’
Strategic investments
Bogaerts is convinced the future of Belgian and European industry depends on strategic investments in sustainable technologies. ‘Besides the European Green Deal, we finally saw the introduction of the Clean Industrial Deal at the end of February. This is a plan for the competitiveness and decarbonisation of the European Union, something we desperately needed! Belgium is too small to go it alone, we need to work together with other European countries. We need to invest in new technologies now to secure the future of our industry and our climate.’
‘Unique breakthrough in climate innovation’
Gill Scheltjens, CEO of start-up D-CRBN, wants to bring about a new industrial revolution with revolutionary plasma technology. In a lab at BlueChem, the incubator for sustainable chemistry in Antwerp, he and his team developed a plasma reactor that breaks down CO2 into the reusable raw material CO.
Worldwide player in plasma technology
Gill Scheltjens, CEO and co-founder of D-CRBN, is a man with a mission: tackle the climate challenge by using advanced plasma technology to blast apart CO2 molecules and split them back into oxygen (O) and carbon monoxide (CO). PLASMANT, Annemie Bogaerts’ research group, has spent the last ten years working on this cutting-edge plasma technology. Spin-off D-CRBN is now scaling up the technology at BlueChem and BlueApp, the innovation centres for the chemistry of the future in the Antwerp port area.
‘What D-CRBN is doing is a major breakthrough in climate innovation,’ Scheltjens believes. ‘We are currently setting world records in energy efficiency. With minimal energy, we can produce a maximum amount of CO, at a price that’s competitive with CO extracted from oil and gas. And the great thing is that it doesn’t require petrochemical companies to change anything about their existing processes. They just need to switch to renewable energy sources. We’re 100% sure that we can become a worldwide player in CO2 recycling.’
Top innovator at Davos
D-CRBN’s innovation has already won many international awards. ‘The best one so far is our award for top innovator in the Carbon Capture and Utilisation Challenge at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos,’ thinks Scheltjens. ‘I had the privilege of travelling to Davos myself at the request of the WEF, a fantastic experience that has given us a great deal of visibility and credibility.’
We’re 100% sure that we can become a worldwide player in CO2 recycling.
Within Europe, D-CRBN is considered a reference project for climate technology. ‘For instance, we recently received 2.5 million euros support from the European Innovation Council (EIC) to further commercialise our plasma reactor,’ Scheltjens proudly explains. ‘And the European Investment Bank (EIB) has also promised to invest 5 million euros in a subsequent phase.’
Converting 1000K of CO2 annually
‘We now want to develop our prototype that can convert 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year into a commercial version that can handle 10,000 tonnes per year,’ Scheltjens says. ‘And we’re already dreaming of the next step: a huge plant with a capacity of 1 million tonnes. Then we’d really have a serious impact. But that still requires a lot of capital, both domestic and European grants and investment rounds from industrial customers, corporate investors and venture capitalists.’
D-CRBN wants to be able to offer a market-ready product by 2026. ‘That date is important because many companies are now exploring the market and will be ready by that time to make a final choice in terms of the technology they’ll be using to reduce their emissions by 2030,’ Scheltjens believes.
Act now!
‘Right now, we really have to do everything we can to drastically reduce our CO2 emissions,’ Scheltjens believes. ‘Consuming less meat, flying less, storing part of the CO2 under the seabed, etc. And what remains after that, D-CRBN can recycle. I notice that other continents have a greater urge to innovate, to gain a possible competitive advantage. I hope that Europe will dare to innovate now, because without customer pull from the European market we won’t manage.’
‘Working together and getting to market quickly’
As valorisation manager of the Antwerp Design Factory, Svetlana Samsonova guides researchers in the industrial implementation of their inventions, and advises industry on how to find marketable solutions to current challenges with the help of the university. ‘Collaborations and innovation are the key to a successful future,’ she says.
Detecting bottlenecks
Svetlana Samsonova is valorisation manager and CEO of the Antwerp Design Factory, an innovation hub of our university that combines the available academic expertise and facilities to translate research results into a product or service. At the same time, Samsonova advises port (and other) companies in the translation into marketable solutions. ‘I try to address the challenges in the port of Antwerp in an impactful way. I spent eight years working in the port as a liaison officer, taking stock of the challenges and seeking university collaborations for the most urgent ones. It’s important to first do a good screening of the problems at hand, detect the bottlenecks, and – above all – ask the end users: what does the market need? I found that the best product-market fits came from the inventoried challenges.’
Living labs
The Antwerp Design Factory works on two tracks, says Samsonova: ‘Track 1 consists of developments from scratch, especially in medical devices. From the moment these products go into clinical trials, we release them. Track 2 is focused on the port: we help our researchers test their inventions on a larger scale in the port. After all, it’s often difficult to move from the lab to an operational environment. The port offers ideal living labs and also provides feedback from relevant partners, which is very valuable for researchers.’
University spin-offs are attractive to investors: the technology is of high quality, the intellectual property is protected, and researchers receive a lot of guidance and support.
Collaborations and innovation
Samsonova would like to intensify this cooperation between the university and the port: ‘The more strategic collaborations, the better. Actually, every major industrial player should have a liaison officer with the university. Such positions create a real win-win: our university has an enormous amount of knowledge and infrastructure, the companies provide the industrial setting as well as ad hoc feedback from the field.’
Samsonova acknowledges that Europe is currently a difficult environment for start-ups: ‘I think the solution lies in collaboration as well as innovation. It’s about creating new things early on, patenting them and marketing them globally. We have the right knowledge and tools, as well as valuable ecosystems like BlueApp and The Beacon to connect partners. But we have to strengthen our position even more.’
Entrepreneurial spirit
Samsonova hopes to involve even more researchers in valorisation projects: ‘A lot of great research doesn’t reach the market now, which is a pity. However, university spin-offs are attractive to investors: the technology is of high quality, the intellectual property is protected, researchers receive a lot of guidance and support, etc. A change in mentality is needed to create the courage and will to market innovative products. Currently, only a small percentage of Flemish research actually leads to product development. In the Netherlands or the United States, that percentage is much higher. Our entrepreneurial spirit here is in dire need of a boost.’
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