OCSiAl, the world's largest producer of graphene nanotubes, helps reduce carbon emissions across various industries with solutions that deliver higher performance using less raw material. In our interview, Said Hocine, EMEA Technical Sales Manager at OCSiAl, shared insights with our readers on a number of important topics, including the company's products and services, R&D activities and sustainability goals.
Report: Murat Soygür
OCSiAl, the world's largest graphene nanotube producer, is helping reduce carbon emissions across various industries through solutions that enable higher performance with less raw material consumption. In the interview we conducted, OCSiAl EMEA Technical Sales Director Said Hocine shared with our readers important information on the company's products and services as well as R&D activities and sustainability goals.
Could you briefly tell us about yourself and your professional background?
I am Said Hocine, serving as Technical Sales Director EMEA at OCSiAl. I carry out my work at our headquarters located in the heart of central Europe, in Luxembourg/Leudelange. I have been working at the company for nearly ten years. I started primarily with operational roles and then moved into sales, where I had the opportunity to work with many leading paints and coatings companies across Europe; during this period we supported the application of graphene nanotube-based solutions in various formulations. Since last year, I have been managing the Turkish market with great pride and am pleased to work in close collaboration with our local distributor Hayim Pinhas; their support is vital in providing effective service to our customers.
What is OCSiAl's long-term vision? How has your company's vision been shaped over the years?
OCSiAl's long-term vision, a science-based company that today ranks among the world's leading industrial corporations, is quite clear: to make the world a better place for all living things by improving the specific properties of all base materials. What has changed over time is our capacity to realize this vision. Today, OCSiAl is the world's largest producer of graphene nanotubes (also known as single-walled carbon nanotubes or SWCNT) and offers an additive that can be used in up to 50 percent of global material markets. We have built a strong intellectual property base with dozens of patents and patent applications in various countries, and our production capacity is currently 60 tons, which will be increased fourfold or more in the coming year. We support more than 1,500 business partners worldwide, and we have a team of over 450 people plus a strong global office and distributor network. Looking to the future, our aim is to help more industries adopt graphene nanotubes and pave the way for new applications where nanotubes could become a standard performance additive.
Which sectors are experiencing the fastest growth in OCSiAl solutions?
For OCSiAl, the paints and coatings sector is currently one of the fastest-growing segments. We are observing strong momentum especially in colored ESD (electrostatic discharge) flooring systems and conductive tank coatings; manufacturers are looking for long-lasting and stable conductivity without affecting final product performance. The evolution of safety standards is also accelerating this trend. Although this technology is still young, graphene nanotubes produced by OCSiAl under the TUBALL™ brand provide reliable, easy-to-use and scalable solutions, enabling formulators to adopt them on a broad scale.
Beyond coatings, sectors such as energy storage, elastomers and thermoset composites are growing rapidly as they integrate conductivity and mechanical performance improvements.
Could you inform us about your R&D activities?
R&D is one of the cornerstones of OCSiAl's strategy. Our goal is not only to produce graphene nanotubes at an industrial scale, but also to make their use simple, reliable and accessible for manufacturers.
Today our R&D department brings together scientists with deep expertise in physics, chemistry and materials science acquired over more than 15 years. Their work is carried out in "TUBALL Centers" dedicated to production technology, development and new material prototyping; these centers are located in Luxembourg, Serbia and China. These centers cover the entire development chain from basic research to fine-tuning TUBALL™ applications in pilot industrial lines.
Our main focus is to make the use of nanotubes easy in real industrial formulations. This involves developing nanotube-based dispersions and concentrates that provide stable conductivity at ultra-low dosages (starting from 0.01 wt.%), preserve the system's original mechanical properties and maintain a wide range of colors and aesthetic variety. We apply the same approach in polymers, elastomers and energy storage; our teams continuously optimize ways to enhance material performance with nanotubes. Overall, our R&D work aims to expand the scope of practical, ready-to-use solutions that deliver consistent results to manufacturers across all these sectors.
What are the key elements of OCSiAl's sustainability strategy?
We enable our customers to achieve higher performance using less raw material, thus helping to reduce carbon emissions across various industries through our solutions. At the same time, minimizing the environmental impact of OCSiAl's own operations is an equally important priority for the company.
In all our business activities, we not only comply with applicable environmental regulations but also integrate energy-efficient practices whenever possible. This commitment manifests itself through very concrete steps. It begins with the meticulous selection of product packaging materials and continues with the constant monitoring of our supply chain to ensure responsible and efficient logistics. Recently, we switched to recycled, lightweight packaging with the aim of reducing transportation emissions for nanotubes by up to 50 percent. Additionally, the new packaging for TUBALL™ concentrates is made from 50 percent recycled plastic, while secondary cardboard packaging is produced from 70 percent recycled material.
An important part of our sustainability strategy is securing clean energy sources for our production facilities. Our facility in Serbia already operates on 100 percent green hydroelectric energy; we have held preliminary discussions with our energy suppliers for our new facility in Luxembourg, and we believe that our Differdange facility will also operate entirely on green energy.
Behind all these efforts lies a single goal: to reduce CO₂ emissions across our entire value chain through both our solutions and our company's operations.
How do you foresee growth trends in the global nanotube market over the next five years?
Over the next five years, we expect strong growth in the global graphene nanotube market as more and more sectors adopt advanced technologies to make their end products more functional, more durable and higher-performing. One of the main triggering factors will be the increase in OCSiAl's production capacity; this will enable us to support existing markets with more accessible solutions. At the same time, production scaling will help industries partially or completely replace components that pose challenges in terms of transportation or regulation and offer a cleaner, safer and more reliable alternative in real production environments. Along with these developments, nanotubes are expected to transition from being a high-performance additive used in specific applications to becoming a widespread solution adopted across many industries.
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