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Paebbl

What takes the earth centuries, Paebbl can do in an hour. From the RDM Shipbuilding Wharf, the innovative scale-up works on the development of CO2-neutral cement.

Arnold Choi, VP of Engineering at Paebbl, passionately states, “Our team shares a unified goal: revolutionizing the chemical industry for the better. We are confident that Paebbl is the catalyst for this transformation.” Discover how this visionary leader and his team are driving change with precision and clarity.

## Concrete use
Mineralization is a natural process in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is fixed to carbonate (CO3). Paebbl’s innovative method accelerates this process many times over. What remains is a kind of stone powder: a raw material that can be reused for various industrial applications, such as paper and concrete. By turning carbon dioxide into a raw material, Paebbl is working against climate change on two tracks. On the one hand by permanently capturing emissions in the process and on the other hand by creating a raw material that can replace CO2-intensive materials. 

## Expert in CO2 mineralization
Arnold was born and raised in the Canadian city of Toronto. How does a Canadian end up in the port of Rotterdam? “I met a beautiful Dutch girl and moved to the Netherlands. Once I arrived, I went to work as an ‘engineer’ at ExxonMobil.” Among other things, he researched how the company could best deal with the energy transition. “One of those technologies I delved into was about CO2 mineralization, which we are now also focusing on at Paebbl.”

## Rotterdam's technical hub
Paebbl has employees spread across Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. Arnold: “Our head office is in Stockholm, but I’m mainly to be found in the R&D centre here on RDM.” Rotterdam’s technical hub turns out to be a very logical place for Paebbl to locate. “You find a high concentration of talent here. There’s a lot of knowledge here in the field of process engineering and the (petro)chemical, oil and gas industries. Rotterdam is known worldwide as a cluster of industrial excellence. This attracts start-ups like Paebbl to this area. Also, the presence of large and smaller industries here allows you to create a network very quickly.”

## Scale-up
Arnold envisages a bright future for Paebbl. Where the company began as a start-up in 2021, the next step is within reach. “We have 25 employees now but want to grow to 70 people by 2024. Although this is primarily our research site, we will soon be able to produce here on a small scale,” Arnold states, pointing to a series of machines. And future dreams? There certainly are: “We want to be a primary materials company, able to make building materials from CO2. By 2050, we want to be able to process a gigaton of carbon dioxide.”

Would you like to help make the ambitions at RDM come true? Paebbl wants to expand his team. Check out the open vacancies at www.careers.paebbl.com.

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Concr3de

When you enter the Innovation Dock at RDM, a sense of grandeur emerges. Thousands of square meters of activity, heavy materials and complicated systems. Here you get the feeling: in Rotterdam, we are contributing major building blocks to the technological progress of the Netherlands and the rest of the world.

Our brightest minds are here – that feeling, so to speak. Powderhouses, as Eric Geboers of 3D printer maker CONCR3DE would put it. After all, his company, which he founded six years ago with associate Matteo Baldassari, works with powder.

Powder? Yes. It works something like this: you make powder from a certain material (such as metal, cement, stone or ceramic) and you put it in a thin layer in the printer. The printer puts a certain kind of ink on that, and the chemical reaction between the ink and the powder creates a hardened material in the shape you designed. At CONCR3DE, found on a large lot in the back of the Innovation Dock, they design these kinds of printers – ‘R&D printers’, aka research and development. CONCR3DE’s printers allow you to research what inks and materials match and what they create.

Eric: “We now build 3D printers, from small ones to large ones, but Matteo and I started out as architects. We dreamed of some kind of architectural machine, where at the push of a button all kinds of special building parts come rolling out. Since we also both have backgrounds in recycled materials and robotics, we decided six years ago to start experimenting in existing 3D printers. That worked a little, but not very well. Then we realized: to do it well, you need a printer of your own. We started developing those, and so now we sell our own research printers. We use them to develop technical materials for complex building applications. But also biomaterials like sawdust and waste streams. A lot of our knowledge relates to the question of how to get a specific type of material out of such a printer. That’s about how you make your ink, how you make your powder and then how you bring them together in all kinds of ways.”

“Every material needs a different chemical reaction with the ink, and researching this is Eric’s and Matteo’s passion. They now employ 23 people who all contribute their bit (or ceramics) to it. “Yes, it’s going really well. We’ve grown a lot in the last two years. There are two or three companies in the world that sell printers this way, but in the Netherlands we are unique.” That’s in the sustainable, recycled materials CONCR3DE uses and the knowledge they are happy to share with interested parties. Unlike other printer manufacturers, “If you look at our competitors, they are bigger, but much more closed and keep the knowledge to themselves. With us you can come by and do tests – we like to share our knowledge. In combination with the sale of the R&D printer, with which you do research, this attitude makes it easy for us to cooperate with customers and research institutes. And enables us to develop in an extremely focused way, so if a customer has a problem, we try to solve it specifically for them.”
One of the reasons for that meteoric growth is the RDM and Innovation Dock. “Because we grew so fast, we looked around a lot for good places to locate. But the fact that we were able to grow from two people to 23 in this hall is really great and kind of special. And besides, when you come in here as a customer, it’s a bit different from an office along the highway. Upon entering the hall everyone is like, ‘oh wow, how cool’. I think people sometimes underestimate the value of that. An entrance like that really adds something to your company.”

“We also know the other companies; the knowledge here is obviously enormously varied and exciting. We are specifically in a niche, so we don’t necessarily work a lot with the other companies, but we do, for example, work with Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and Rotterdam Technical College. We find our interns there and we can use the machines they have for testing. Yes, the activity on RDM is enormously valuable.”

A colleague of Eric’s grabs a skateboard and whizzes off. “We have another lot on the other side of the building, with a skateboard you just get there faster. And the cast floor is very suitable for skateboards,” Eric laughs.

_Photography by Eric Fecken_

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Zepp.solutions

Jan Bot is one of the five founders of zepp.solutions, a specialist in hydrogen-based fuel cell systems. They develop, produce and integrate these emission-free systems for various forms of transport. With this they help companies to become more sustainable, where they might not even have thought it was possible.

At RDM you will find the test site right next to the Innovation Dock.

The business development and finance department, that’s Jan’s area. So, the five each hold slightly different positions, suited to their expertise. This group of entrepreneurs know each other from TU Delft where they formed a racing team ten years ago. They invented and manufactured hydrogen sports cars with which they competed in races. This went so well that the lap record for this type of vehicle, which driver Jan Lammers drove at the Nürburgring in 2015, has not been beaten to this day. Their car also raced to the end in a top-level race for ‘regular’ gasoline cars. Achievements of stature.

Jan Bot, who himself races classic cars as a hobby: “What we did was pure passion. We were so absorbed in it that it sometimes came at the expense of study. We did this for five years and achieved a lot. We are now reaping the benefits of that.” He himself studied technical earth science at TU, though it was mainly the love of racing that brought him into the team.

In March 2017, zepp.solutions started as a company in Delft. To be exact, in the company building of innovation accelerator Buccaneer. “We felt we had something great on our hands. This is our chance, we thought, and it soon turned out to be a success.”

A fitting example is the yard tractor they developed for Terberg, supplier of specialized commercial vehicles. In October 2020, they began testing the first concept hydrogen-powered terminal tractor in Rotterdam’s Waalhaven. The tractor runs among conventional diesel terminal tractors, pulling the same loads, and is remotely monitored to collect a multitude of data. “These types of vehicles are ideal for hydrogen applications. They run 24/7, have high energy requirements and operate in large numbers in one place. So, a charging station is then logistically well used and financially justifiable.” Meanwhile, the tractor is being tested in other locations, such as the port of Antwerp.

“For a lot of power and energy, you must go to hydrogen; you won’t make it with batteries. Certainly not if you go for zero emission. Also think about trucks and ocean-going vessels. Test runs and demonstrations with our hydrogen-powered concept vehicles are important, to make it known to the business community that these kinds of possibilities are there when looking for sustainability.”

“Two years ago, zepp.solutions started a project with Rotterdam Watertaxis. After all, it would be nice if that could also be done without emissions, Jan thinks. “The first hull has now been built, and will enter service as a test case early next year.”

Another exciting project is what they have started with Schiphol and KLM; a hydrogen system to supply clean power to stationary aircraft. A nice alternative to the many diesel generators now running in abundance there, since pure water is the only emission with hydrogen.

Terberg, Schiphol, KLM. Those are already big names. “Our proof-of-concept has already proven itself in practice with the race team. That is why we directly looked for customers who have the necessary finances, rather than initially going after investors. We do work with available grants for this type of greening process. As we start to scale up, I don’t rule out the possibility that we will seek investors later on. Although the costs are coming down quickly now and our modular approach makes this scaling up quite possible.”

“In the centre of Delft, you don’t want to tinker with flammable substances. So, we went looking for an affordable and spacious test location for fuel-cell systems. We found it here through the Port Authority and it’s very convenient for us, in an appealing environment. Innovative and representative.”

“There are fifteen of us now, but we are already looking for a larger location. Preferably where we have everything in one place. Who knows, maybe here. It would be nice to create a hydrogen bubble on RDM, with the Watertaxi around the corner. It could also just as easily become M4H. We’ll see.”

The ambition of the five young entrepreneurs is: to become European market leader! |That’s how high the bar is set. With the expertise and USP that zepp.solutions masters the entire system around hydrogen, they are going to go a long way.

RDM Rotterdam

Paebbl

Concrete use

Expert in CO2 mineralization

Rotterdam's technical hub

Scale-up

Other news

Zepp.solutions

Concr3de