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Cassius

“A robot doesn’t retire and doesn’t need a mould”. Enthusiastic entrepreneur Eric Barendse explains that with his 3D printing company Cassius, he wants to bring together the old and the new. With Cassius, Eric is researching how to 3D print environmentally friendly materials such as clay, loam and geopolymer with robots. In this way, he hopes to make the construction industry more sustainable and future-proof.

Since 2015, Barendse has been collaborating with a partner company that works with concrete. The moulds for apartment building façades, for example, are currently primarily made by hand by mould makers. Because of the aging population among these craftsmen and the amount of waste generated by using moulds, they turned to 3D printing. Eric: “A robot arm that is 3D printing on an industrial scale consumes a lot of data. And I provide that robot code – especially for large, complex designs. However, I started Cassius to go one step further and show the industry that 3D printing buildings can be a lot more sustainable and efficient. The digital ‘understanding’ of materials and design automation plays a big role in that.”

## Combination of physical and digital
This digitization of the construction and maritime industry is something Eric is experiencing from the front row at RDM. “The nice thing about the Innovation Dock is that all the entrepreneurs also have a link to the physical. There are many innovation hubs in the Netherlands, but there are often only people there who are developing an app or a platform or something. The companies on RDM almost all have an interface with production of a physical product. But they all have a software side as well. So, if you dig a little further, you always see that digitization is the driver. I think that’s cool, because it gives both that old, diligent port feeling, and the new feeling of digitalization and innovation.”

## Starting small at RDM
Eric: “And it’s precisely that experimentation that’s so great at RDM. Here entrepreneurs are given the opportunity to try things out. Normally when you start your business you first must rent an entire hall, to which you are often tied for five years. But of course, it can happen that you start something and find out after only two weeks that your idea is nothing at all. At RDM you can, so to speak, terminate your rent after a month without that being a disaster. Here conditions are created where entrepreneurship is less scary, where people are more daring. The courage to start something is especially important for innovation.”

## Printing a chunk of Rotterdam
Although you see 3D printing everywhere these days, not even that many people are working on this development. Eric: “There are a lot of people working with plastics, but 3D printing with concrete, or clay-like materials is still done on a small scale. There are only two buildings in the Netherlands built this way. So, the housing crisis and climate crisis will not be solved acutely with this unless scaling up very quickly. But to scale up, all teething problems must be eliminated, and we must make full use of new digital possibilities. Then we can eventually print a chunk of Rotterdam in a sustainable and affordable way. “That’s the part I hope to accomplish here at RDM.”

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Fluitec

Pierre Vanderkelen stares out the large glass windows of his office. Since February, he and his company Fluitec have taken up residence at RDM, on the south shore of the Maas. From the Directiekade, Pierre has an excellent view of a special part of the port of Rotterdam. The iconic yellow Watertaxis are constantly docking and sailing to and fro. Students wend their way to the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences or to the Technical College. And occasionally ships sail by with a colossal cargo on board. “It’s much more than just renting an office at RDM. The ecosystem of companies, schools with their students, and the Innovation Center here is very special. We are in a real ‘port innovation village’ with all the trimmings. We feel very much at home here.”

## Belgian Genius
Pierre, CEO of Fluitec, graduated as a nuclear engineer. He started his career at ENGIE in a Belgian nuclear power plant and then immersed himself in renewable energy. After an MBA in Spain, Pierre sought the dynamic setting of a start-up company, and found it at Fluitec in 2009. “Fluitec was a real start-up populated by great people with bold ideas about an age-old business model that could be changed.”

## Running Smoothly
So Fluitec focuses on lubricants. But what are these for? Pierre explains: “Every time you get into a car, you rely on oil to keep everything running smoothly. Even electric vehicles! Traditionally, this lubricant is treated as a consumable, as it’s regularly changed, discarded and replaced. The same process takes place in industrial environments, but on a much larger scale, thousands of times the volume compared to an automotive engine.”

Fluitec began with a bold question: ‘Should we throw away oil regularly? Can oil last the entire service life of equipment?' Over the past two decades, Fluitec has developed and patented breakthrough technologies to prove that industrial oils can indeed last the lifetime of the equipment in which it’s used . For example, they discovered that the oil does not need to be replaced in its entirety, but that replenishing certain chemicals and filtering waste products in the oil is sufficient.

“Our process is similar to how a doctor tests your blood. If a test shows that there is a certain vitamin deficiency, you get a syringe full of that vitamin and you’re fine for a while. We measure the oil and add back the necessary chemicals that disappear during the usage process. This allows companies not only to save a lot of money, but also to reduce CO2 emissions by 70 to 80 percent.” This means Fluitec is challenging the age-old business model of the oil industry. “We have shown the industry that we can at least triple the lifetime of lubricants in use.”

## At Home in RDM
Fluitec operates in more than 100 countries and has offices in the United States, Singapore and Australia. But here in RDM, Pierre really feels at home. “We’re in a very special ecosystem here. Only in the US could I find something similar, but that was only for much larger companies. In RDM we are close to like-minded innovative companies, current and potential customers, and of course the innovators of the future.” RDM invites connections between surrounding companies who like to keep each other informed and push each other. “Recently I gave a pitch at the iTanks event at RDM and went to meet our neighbours from Ampelmann,” Pierre says. “We also want to investigate whether we could collaborate in future with students from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. That’s how we try to keep growing in a balanced way so that we will continue making an even bigger difference 100 years from now.”

_Photography by Eric Fecken_

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Port XL

An ecosystem of start-ups, scale-ups, corporate partners and mentors: PortXL is an acceleration program in the maritime sector. The Innovation Dock at RDM Rotterdam is therefore a logical location for the program, which was founded in 2015. On the historic wharves of the former shipyard, you’ll find companies of all sizes. The common denominator? Innovation. We spoke with Christel Pullens, Innovation & Sustainability Director and interim director at PortXL.

Christel has worked in the maritime sector all her life. And she did so all over the world: “I started my career at a shipyard in Belgium. That was in 1997. Three years ago, I chose to become an impact-driven entrepreneur and make the maritime sector more sustainable. And that is what we are pursuing with PortXL.”

## Making the maritime sector more sustainable
Christel: “PortXL works on behalf of a number of partners, including the Port of Rotterdam Authority, Van Oord, Boskalis and Damen. At the beginning of each year, we discuss the challenges in the field of sustainability. Based on those issues, our team scouts around the world for start-ups and scale-ups that have a solution for this.” PortXL’s team makes a pre-selection, from which corporate partners choose with whom to partner. “Then the selected start-ups and scale-ups come to Rotterdam to follow our program over three months. In those three months, we work together toward some form of cooperation and a concrete result.”

## Innovation
The Innovation Dock at RDM turns out to be the ideal starting point for young companies in the maritime sector. “An example of a PortXL alumni who found a workplace here is Flower Turbines. They have since outgrown the Innovation Dock and moved to a larger factory in Zoetermeer.” In addition to the acceleration program, PortXL also provides a special master class at RDM for companies. “Many parties in the maritime sector would like to collaborate and innovate but are not so sure where to start. With the ‘Master Class Innovator in a day’, we teach them how to set up their company to work well with a start-up or scale-up. With the master class, we try to take innovation more tangible. Because innovation is a profession.”

## Women at the helm
If it were up to Christel, more positions in the maritime industry would be filled by women. To make that happen, she chairs WISTA International, a network for women in management positions in the maritime industry. “WISTA is active in 56 countries and has more than 4,000 members worldwide. We are committed to providing good role models. Particularly important for young women in the industry.”

This means Christel is making a positive impact in the maritime sector in several ways, all from the Innovation Dock at RDM Rotterdam. Want to know more about PortXL’s acceleration program and/or master classes? Go to www.portxl.org.

_Photography by Eric Fecken_

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PortXL

Combination of physical and digital

Starting small at RDM

Printing a chunk of Rotterdam

Other news

PortXL

Fluitec