Industrial operations often produce by-product streams that are costly to manage and difficult to reuse. One example is salty water, or more specifically, aqueous magnesium chloride, a by-product from the production processes at our partner K+S, a leading provider of kalium fertilizer and salt-based products.Today, this byproduct stream represents a significant cost and environmental challenge. But what if it could be transformed into something useful environmentally and economically? That’s exactly what K+S aims to explore, synthesizing aqueous magnesium chloride into high-value nanostructured magnesium hydroxide.

Imagine a world where everything we use gets a second life. This is the vision behind the circular economy as “a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible”. 

Traditional multibillion-dollar corporations have dominated the modern economy due to their market access, structured processes, and well-known, trusted products. Uncertainty is being caused by the emergence of new trends, technologies, and market opportunities. In this environment, startups thrive. They are quick, problem-oriented, and fearless, but they lack experience and economy of scale. Collaboration between corporations and startups appears to be a perfect match, but it is not as simple as it sounds. They need help.