It’s a scientific and industrial challenge that seems crazy. Near Angers, however, a young start-up has set itself the objective of transforming previously non-recyclable waste into stones, to then be used as construction material. Neolithic, that’s its name, has just announced a new fundraising of 60 million euros to accelerate the “large-scale alternative” that it is about to propose. “Today, waste that is not recovered is either buried or incinerated, it is an environmental disaster,” explains Quentin Laurens, director of public affairs. Our objective is to propose a third path: that of accelerated fossilization. » Basically, reproducing the natural cycle of rock formation but much more quickly than what happened millions of years ago.
It was William Cruaud, a former tufa stone cutter, who had this revelation, embarking in 2019 on this promising entrepreneurial adventure with his engineer son Nicolas and a third partner. Concretely, they looked at non-inert and non-hazardous industrial waste to grind it into a very fine powder, then transform it into a mineral paste using a “natural binder” whose recipe is secretly kept. In less than an hour a pebble of the desired shape and size is formed, which can be compared to natural stone after two or three months. “Everything is protected, patented,” says Quentin Laurens. We are the only ones in the world to offer this process which has a negative carbon footprint, because the fossilization of waste sequesters more CO2 than it emits. »
Slabs and soon roads
In three years, the idea has already come a long way. A first factory pre-industrial has grown in Chalonnes-sur-Loire, with a processing capacity of 10,000 tonnes of industrial waste per year. And the demands from construction companies are there, with several slabs or pedestrian paths already made with this new eco-friendly material, called anthropocite. “It has very good mechanical properties. Today we can integrate 20% to replace conventional aggregate in clean concrete, which is already not bad. » Studies are underway to move on to structural concrete, but also to be able to make it into road underlays, with high requirements in terms of resistance and environmental tolerance. A growing market when 450 million tonnes of aggregates are consumed each year and the activity of rock quarries is sometimes debated.
Néolithe, which already has 200 employees, plans to build a first factory in Pays-de-la-Loire by 2025, this time with a processing capacity of 100,000 tonnes of waste per year. Equipment which would be duplicated throughout France with another ambition, that of being able to also recycle household waste from the black bin (or organic matter, which is also intended to be sorted anyway). Ultimately, Néolithe assures that it will be able to “reduce the country’s carbon footprint by 7%” while the building sector currently represents 43% of French annual energy consumption and generates 23% of greenhouse gas emissions.