During our Partner Event, we met up with Roel Huis in ‘t Veld from Kriya Materials. Roel is an important partner of Brightlands Materials Center, and is since 2012 the director of Kriya Materials B.V. Please, let us introduce Kriya Materials to you!
Hi Roel, tell us a little bit about yourself and your company?
My name is Roel Huis in ’t Veld, I am the director of Kriya Materials B.V. located at the Brightlands Chemelot campus since 2006. Our company focuses on making novel nanotechnology-based-products which will have a positive impact on the amount of energy used for lighting, cooling of buildings and cars, efficiency of solar panels as well as materials which allow greenhouses to be more productive in terms of crop yields at lower energy usage, next to multi-functional surfaces for displays which prevent light reflection, dust, smudge etc.
I admit that sounds quite divers, but actually it is quite straight forward. We make our nanoparticles, modify them and embed them either in a coating matrix or into a polymer matrix. Our idea behind this is that we develop custom made “sales-ready” products, they should work as drop-in solutions at our customers, without them having to change a thing in their production process, other than adding our materials. Essentially we make smart combinations of materials which allow us to do that. The fact that we can control this all in house from start to finish is what sets us apart.
Sounds very interesting! And what is your connection with Brightlands Materials Center?
We believe that we are part, and should act in, an eco-system of know-how to solve challenges along the way. We cannot do this all stand-alone. We have dubbed this “hotspot thinking” many years ago. When we came up with this strategy we started to search for relevant partnerships and nowadays we are in the middle of a vast network of knowledge institutes and universities across our EU-region and globe with whom we interact. Brightlands Materials Center is one of these parties with whom we seek strategic partnering, we co-develop, co-invent and co-aspire near and far future products, which addresses clearly defined problems.
Why is the collaboration with Brightlands Materials Center so important for Kriya?
We are clearly a SME (small and medium-sized) company, and we know that outside our company there are loads of people who can contribute to our developments, as they have a different or adjacent expertise or simply the capacity to assist us as we lack internal resources. Brightlands Materials Center has started a few years ago, and we were one of the early partners, also as we already had a long-standing working relationship with TNO. We know each other therefore quite well. Brightlands Materials Center has equipment and people which we lack, collaborating with them in different projects has therefore be a straightforward strategy from day 1, it is truly synergistic.
Which elements are needed to make this collaboration to a success?
It all starts with willingness to cooperate, ability to share, and an open attitude, but also to accept that cost go before revenue, which is not always easy, but as an SME we would never be able to carry the weight of a full absorbed cost upfront, willingness to share risks is therefore a prerequisite.
What may we expect from the collaboration?
Various things, a recent example; we just started a research project which should allow us to make a wet coating, which when coated on glass becomes a thermo chromic switchable coating. This coating will allow solar radiation to heat up your room during winter days as solar heat passes through the glass, during summer it will do the opposite and thus block solar heat, keeping your room cool. This will then have a significant impact on the heating and air-conditioning bill as well as the CO2 footprint of buildings and cars.
What’s the position of Kriya within 5 years?
Kriya Materials will fulfill its mission; We will have a positive impact on societal challenges by improving the energy efficiency and lowering CO2 footprint of products and processes and materials resources to get it done by utilizing our nanotechnology know-how. By carefully planning and matching market timing, e.g. the ability, and willingness to adapt novel technologies by market partners we will be allowed to become a far larger SME then today, and while growing we aspire to be a company that moves the status quo for our customers, partners and shareholders, while having a positive impact on the earlier mentioned global challenges.