Niro A/S is playing an important role in what may well prove to be the start of the new industrial revolution: the production of materials and products using nanoparticles. The 4-year, 15.7 million euro project, is partially funded by the European Commission and involves 21 industrial partners including SMEs, universities and research institutions from 11 European countries and Canada.

The project is called SAPHIR and was started at CEA Saclay (French Atomic Commission) in October, 2006. Its overall objective is the safe, integrated, controlled, economic production and recycling of high-tech, multifunctional, nano-structured products. The aim is to develop an integrated ‘factory for nanos’ and to gather all the industrial ‘elementary bricks’ to make the bottom-up manufacturing approach using nanoparticles a reality.

Nanoparticles are of great scientific interest as they are effectively a bridge between bulk materials and atomic structures. A bulk material should have constant physical properties regardless of its size, but at the nano-scale this is often not the case. Particles as small as 10-9m* have a large proportion of their atoms on their surface. This gives them unique properties making them behave completely differently from bulk materials. The SAPHIR project aims to explore safe ways of manufacturing these particles, understand the opportunities they present and exploit them commercially.

The role of Niro in the project is to integrate spray drying into a novel processing line from nanoparticles synthesis to production of nanostructured components. To be handled safely, it is important that nanopowders are never handled in dry form but incorporated in another medium or converted to non-dusting agglomerates or granules using, for example, spray drying. Niro's objectives within the SAPHIR project are to utilise its spray drying equipment to produce optimal nanostructured granulates from nanoparticle suspensions, which can be further processed into components with superior properties.

Niro aims to become the leading supplier of equipment for producing nanostrutured granulate based on nanoparticles. It is believed that these particles will allow the production of new materials that are lighter, stronger and less expensive than any known today. These materials are also likely to have exceptional coating properties that can reduce wind resistance (and therefore fuel consumption), improve electrical conductivity and making self-cleaning goods.

It is expected that nanoparticles will become widely used in the future, especially in the automotive, construction, space, aeronautics and energy industries.

*10-9 m = 1 nanometre (nm). This means that 1 million particles would fit in a line 1 millimetre long.