The Spanish company Cosentino announced today in Madrid the start of the project Circular Technology Careera commitment to innovation and sustainability that will represent “the biggest leap in the sector globally in over a decade”, all within the framework of the investment plan which has approximately 410 million euros until 2026.
The Circular Technology Quarry (CT Quarry) is another example of the company’s commitment to evolution with a strong commitment to the circular economy and decarbonization, an initiative that will have a total investment estimated at 90 million euros.
A project that Work will begin between 2026 and 2027 and it will be a reality by 20230, as confirmed by the presentation of Cosentino’s strategy and innovation projects.
European Innovation Fund
The company highlighted that the Cantera Tecnológica project “was one of 16 medium-sized projects, and the only one in Spain, selected during the last call of the European Commission Innovation Fund“.
The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programs for implementation of innovative net-zero and low-carbon technologiesbeing one of the key tools of the European Green Deal industrial plan.
The Circular Technological Career project aims, according to its promoters, “the future construction of a pioneering factory on an industrial scale worldwide produce innovative and sustainable raw materials for the European construction, glass and ceramic materials sectors.
Emissions, circularity and safety
The project is built around respecting three fundamental principles: low carbon emissions, circularity and security with a new factory that will treat more than 100,000 tonnes/year of industrial sludge waste from Cosentino’s production processes.
Among the project figures are the reduction of emissions by 62%, the reuse and recovery of industrial waste and the recycling of raw materials. Among the materials that will enter the circularity circuit are glass, ceramics, building materials with the aim of continuing to maintain a low crystalline silica content.
To the 100,000 tonnes of treated sludge which will not be rejected, the Technological Quarry will in turn produce more than 247,000 tonnes per year new raw materials “for which future applications are already planned”, as explained during a press conference held in Cosentino City Madrid, Álvaro de la Haza, executive vice president of the international company.
Fuels and renewable energies
The circular technology quarry project integrates the use of renewable fuels and electrical energy, with heat recovery systems, and is expected to achieve a absolute reduction of emissions greenhouse gas emissions of more than a million tonnes of CO₂ in ten years.
The more than 400 million euros of the plan until 2026 will be focused on 75% to manufacturing investments and logistics activity and, furthermore, it faces the employability challenge, creating new direct and indirect jobs in waste management, high-tech manufacturing and the construction industry.
Hybriq+
The company says this project “continues the path of more than four decades of consistent product innovation that has reached a new milestone with Hybriq+.”
A technology patented by Cosentino that “has allowed us not only to completely change the nature of Silestone, but also to chart the global industry’s path towards more durable engineered surfaces, with a greater presence of recycled raw material low in silica”, as highlighted by Valentín Tijeras, vice president of innovation and products.
Thanks to Hybriq+, the company was able to gradually reduce presence of silica or quartz in its compositionuntil last year all Silestone production was under the Q40 variant, i.e. with a maximum of 40% silica in its composition.
Innovation and R&D
At the same time, Cosentino progressed and produced several collections and colors from the brand’s portfolio in the 10th quarter, with only betweenn 1% and 10% crystalline silica in its formulation.
Likewise, Cosentino, a Spanish company world leader in the production of durable surfaces for architecture and design, announced this morning its latest advances and advances in innovation and R&D.
with two National Innovation Awards by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (2016-2021), and selected as a finalist two consecutive years for the National Connected Industry 4.0 Prize (2023-2024), the company “has consolidated itself as a leading company and a reference in its sector on a global scale thanks to the development of new disruptive solutions. materials and applying the latest technologies both in the efficiency of production processes and in the digitalization of the value chain.
Investment effort
They emphasize this strategic axis, supported by a relevant investment effort. In 2023, Cosentino Ininvested 22 million euros in R&DI projects and assetsbringing this figure to more than 100 million accumulated over the last five years.
A commitment supported by a vast industrial property portfolio which covers 30 patent families in force which protect different inventions in the different countries where it operates, in addition to 88 different registered models. An innovation that is reflected in the creation of materials present in a multitude of applications for the home and public spaces.
Focus on digitalization
During the press conference, de la Haza analyzed current outlook for the stone and engineered surfaces industryand the current international and macroeconomic context.
Likewise, it framed both the commitment to digitalization in general and “our innovation strategy is structured around two axes, which are efficiency and sustainabilityin order to continue to be leader in an increasingly demanding market, due to the advance of Asian competition, the environmental challenge and the cost of raw materials, maintaining our commitment to centralized production in our park industrialist from Almería.
“We will continue to work and invest“, as we have done since our origins, to offer our customers around the world products of advanced design and increasingly durable and safe, with the levels of quality and exclusivity that have always characterized the company”, de la Haza continued.
connected home
Finally, recent examples were also cited showing how the company is also progressing in the integration of new technologies into their surfaces in the field of “connected or intelligent home”.
With its ultra-compact Dekton porcelain surface, which already represents a third of the company’s activity, currently a leader in the field of kitchen worktops with integrated or invisible induction hobswith models developed in collaboration with companies like Gaggenau or Novy.
And just a few weeks ago, the company reached an agreement with Freepower in the United States under which Silestone and Dekton surfaces can be used. act as wireless chargers for different electronic devices.
Industry 4.0
Another area in which the company positions itself as a global benchmark is that of Industry 4.0. With a Industrial park of nearly 4 million square meters, which houses 9 factories and a logistics warehouse.or fully automated.
Cosentino thus transformed its complex of Cantoria (Almería) in an authentic Smart Factory with more than 70,000 monitored variables and 96 robots or RPA 100% R&D&I from Cosentino.
As explained by Álvaro Sánchez-Apellaniz, Chief Strategy & Data Officer, after the creation of a Datalake in which centralize all information generated by the organizationfrom raw material procurement, production, management and customers.
Connected factory
They highlight that “significant progress is being made in terms of efficiency and decision-making, making Cosentino a data-driven organization.” thanks to advanced analytical tools and Artificial Intelligence“.
Concretely, in the manufacturing part, the company is committed to the concept of Connected factorywhich means creating a single platform to store, visualize and leverage IoT datain addition to providing services to other ancillary applications intended for production. This project started in 2018 and currently has over 70,000 process variables.
