Nature is full of untapped renewable materials, like oyster shells. A small French company is finding highly innovative uses for them: as an ingredient for paint and for the filaments of 3D printers.

"We don't pay enough attention to nature. You can find wealth even in the garbage", says Martine Le Lu. In 1999, this chemist concerned by environmental protection took over the small business founded by her father in Cléguer, a small town near Lorient, in Brittany. She left a good executive position in a pharmaceutical company and invested all her savings in the production of innovative sustainable materials. After three years of research, she decided to recycle oyster shells. "My factory is in Morbihan, a department full of oyster farmers. Until recently, many oysters were discarded as waste because they didn’t reach maturity. Now, I pay to collect and transform them."

Every year, Martine Le Lu processes 4,000 tons of oysters. One by one, the shells are cleaned, purified, sieved, heated and crushed by a machine, created by the family; who like to keep their methods a secret. The powder, primarily made of calcium carbonate mixed with pine resin and soybean oil, is sold to paint makers and used for road marking, in two colors - white or yellow. The product costs twice as much as petroleum-based paste but it lasts far longer.

No matter how great Martine Le Lu’s scientific expertise is, she can’t work entirely alone. So she partnered with scientific labs such as Bretagne Sud University in Lorient to help her break into the new 3D printing market. The powder from the crushed oysters is going to help produce the filaments needed to print objects. “It can be used in many different ways”, points out the manager, who doesn’t want to be more specific.

Her factory covers 3,000 m² and employs a small team of eight people. Martine Le Lu is busy every day overseeing all the different activities of the company. One day, she’s selling oyster shell based products, and the day after, calcareous seaweeds that purify water. She brought them back from Iceland and sells them to wastewater treatment plants managed by local authorities. Every year, she transforms almost 20,000 tons of dried seaweed. Kervellerin also produces natural fertilizers, made with sugar and grape flesh. “I want to limit the use of chemical substances. We have to learn to look around us, nature is full of resources that we can use without destroying it”. 30% of the 5 million euro annual sales are made outside France, mainly in other European countries.

@LettreEco

For more information

Website: http://www.usinedekervellerin.fr/

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