We are strongly inspired by nature. In nature, every surface is multi-functional, energy efficient and minimizes waste.
In industry, surfaces are not multi-functional, nor energy efficient, resulting in lots of waste.
Qlayers envisions to contribute to a sustainable society by making each surface functional.
In industry, surfaces are not multi-functional, nor energy efficient, resulting in lots of waste.
Qlayers envisions to contribute to a sustainable society by making each surface functional.
THE POWER OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY
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In the era of ‘energy transition,’ we cannot afford to have inefficient sources of renewable energy production or energy-intensive ships or aircraft caused by incompetent surfaces.
In the upcoming years, we need to transfer to 100% renewable energy production and wind energy is going to play a very important role in this. The wind energy market is developing quickly and it is expected to produce about 15% of the EU’s electricity demand by 2020, avoiding 333 million tonnes of CO2 per year. More than half of the new power capacity comes from wind power. At the same time, the wind energy sector is having a hard time to meet the increasing demand. There is a quest for technologies increasing the energy efficiency of wind turbines without changing too much in the well-established manufacturing processes. Finding a simple yet effective way to improve the efficiency of wind turbines, even those already installed, has become the holy grail in this sector. While renewable energy production is needed, we should also not forget the power of energy efficiency since this enables us to produce less, which should be the most important objective at all times and especially, when it comes to energy-intensive industrial processes. 9 out of the 10 goods that we use in our daily life are transported by a container ship that consumes more CO2 than 12000 cars together. In addition, one flight from Amsterdam to Spain consumes more CO2 than you would save with eating a year long no meat. |
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Cutting CO2 emissions and transitioning towards renewable sources are two of the main energy challenges ahead of us. Our innovation contributes to both of them.
Qlayers helps conservative and energy intensive industries to become more sustainable. The only thing we change is the way coatings are applied. With our automated coating application method, we create nature-based microstructures such as the drag-reducing ‘sharkskin’ microstructure in certified coatings at high speed, translating in 8% more energy efficient surfaces and 50% paint savings. |
Applying sharkskin microstructures on wind turbines, airplanes and ships reduces friction with air or water with 3-8%. Such an improvement may seem negligible, but it is actually enormous. We can save up to 8000 ton CO2 per year per large ship and 4400 ton CO2 per year for an aircraft. For 2MW wind turbine blades the microstructures can increase the energy output up to 264.000 kWh per year. In all cases, we save up to 50% of paint, resulting in CO2 savings of more than 2000 kgCO2e per industrial surface. Moreover, the release of toxic solvents like VOC’s in the environment are eliminated and large energy consuming coating facilities are avoided.
We are the only one worldwide that is able to print sharkskin microstructures in a cost-efficient and effective way.
Our technology does not require any modification in the mechanics or control of the industrial surfaces that we coat; even the paint will stay the same which reduces the threshold for implementation significantly in the conservative industries that we target.
We are the only one worldwide that is able to print sharkskin microstructures in a cost-efficient and effective way.
Our technology does not require any modification in the mechanics or control of the industrial surfaces that we coat; even the paint will stay the same which reduces the threshold for implementation significantly in the conservative industries that we target.
