In the Netherlands, many people work passionately with biomass as a raw material. They work on innovations, improve (production) processes or create policy for a fossil-free future. We have had a series of conversations with people who work at companies where bio raw materials are central. In this mini-series we highlight what drives them to work on the transition to a sustainable world. In the sixth episode we have a conversation with Alexander Hooijmaaijers from Martens ceramics.
The development of sustainable real estate is gaining more and more ground, because profits can be achieved quickly and effectively with sustainable construction. In ecological and social terms, but also in economic terms. Yet the construction sector is only making a hesitant start.
At a time when calls for environmental awareness and sustainability are becoming increasingly louder, the construction sector plays a crucial role in realizing positive changes. Sustainable construction goes beyond just reducing the ecological impact. It also includes social responsibility and economic benefits, making it an integrated approach to creating real estate that not only meets current needs but also considers future generations.
We spoke with Alexander Hooijmaaijers, sales team leader at Martens ceramics. Martens produces plastic, concrete and ceramic building materials. Martens is mainly familiar with road and hydraulic engineering. They introduced themselves to the construction industry with a new product line. Martens ceramics was founded in 2018. They produce biobased ceramic facade cladding under the brand name Kerloc. The facade cladding is 100% circular and has a long lifespan.
Alexander Hooijmaaijers: “I traveled a lot in my previous work. I worked for a Japanese manufacturer that distributed all over the world. Through this work I have seen all corners of Europe, a week every month in Japan and therefore never in the Netherlands for long. I have traveled a lot by plane. About 5-6 years ago I became aware that this has a negative impact on the environment. That got me thinking. What was I doing? How do I see the future of my children? Many people are now starting to feel the urgency that we must do something for the climate and the environment. I started looking for another job, because I no longer felt at home in this way of working. More than five years ago, Martens asked me if I was interested in working for them to start up a new product line. Sustainability has been an important theme within Martens for years and is the common thread within the production departments. Martens set the goal of developing a completely new, sustainable and 100% circular product. Going from an idea to an actual product that is also sustainable, circular and biobased really appealed to me. We are making a statement to all traditional manufacturers. That this will become the way people deal in construction, that it is possible and actually should be.”
The process from wood to ceramic plate material did not happen automatically. Martens came into contact with sheet material through the takeover of a production line. That production line tried to make sheet material from eggplant waste.
Alexander: “The Martens development team didn't think the idea of the production line they took over was all that crazy. A colleague from our development team said 20-25 years ago that wood can petrify in nature. Wood that lies underground becomes petrified. Groundwater that slowly seeps through the soil deposits minerals in places where lignin and cellulose rot away. You can try to imitate this process chemically. Our colleague was convinced that this was possible. He started working with pots and pans and some ingredients and after a few months he came back with this. It still needed some polishing, but he thought it was feasible. We developed it in 1,5 to 2 years. With the team we thought if we can produce something like this, where can we make an impact? Where is the market need so great that you can make a positive impact? You can make it super romantic, but we also have to have a profitable business case, so where do you need sales? We have gone through various reports. One of those reports shows that 123 million m2 cladding is required. That in itself is not that much, but if you zoom in, the lion's share of that need lies in Europe. This allows us to make an impact and have a profitable business case. So it is actually the application and the market that determines.
Ultimately, our goal is for our product to consist entirely of residual flows. We use poplar wood. These are simply Dutch poplars that are pruned or felled here. We make thread fibers from the wood. And we are going to harden those wire fibers. You would think wood is wood, but that is not the case.
At some point we found the right recipe. What we could repeat in terms of scaling up, because first you make small pictures and then you look at how it behaves, what it does, you can repeat it. After a batch was used up and a new one was used, it turned out that the strength of the material was not the same. As it turned out, all the wood we had tested all this time were poplars harvested in the autumn and the new batch was harvested in the spring.
This way you learn that all parameters suddenly change in such a process. Because we now know poplar wood so well, we cannot simply switch to another type of wood or another bio-material to guarantee quality.
With real ceramics, you bake clay in the oven at 1200 degrees, then the product hardens. Of course, that is not possible with wood. Our process for making Kerloc is a similar process. We use minerals to harden the wood threads. Wood fibers are flexible. We make this hard through the chemical action of minerals. Minerals are mined to get it, so you want to get rid of that eventually. That will have an impact on our product, but for now we still need it. We continue to develop so that we can hopefully use that process fully in a sustainable way.”
Unknown makes unloved, also applies to construction. Construction is traditional. An architect wants to develop something new or unique every time. That is somewhat the signature in terms of design, but if you look at the materials, it is almost always the same materials that are used.
Alexander: “We have good conversations with architects, project developers, with governments and also with corporations and municipalities. They are all enthusiastic. We do notice that the contractor is more conservative. New products take time to learn how to handle them and to understand how they can be applied. This will work out in the end. The entire process just takes time.
I personally think it's great to be able to contribute to that entire process. That I, as a person and as a company, can contribute to making construction more sustainable and conscious.”
What makes Kerloc 100% circular?
Due to its sustainable character (50+ years), it lasts longer than the technical or economic lifespan of an object, making it suitable for disassembly and reusable through reassembly.
The used panels can be taken back and reused (completely and indefinitely within our own production process) in the production of new Kerloc cladding.
Residual waste from our production process is not waste, because the residual waste is also reused in the production of new Kerloc cladding. In contrast to traditional facade cladding, this makes Kerloc a fully-fledged circular alternative.
