Latin America–Indigenous invention Ceramic researchers and companies pursue homegrown solutions to global challenges in Latin America

From a market perspective, Latin America is significantly bigger than you may realize. The Pew Research Center projects that Europe’s population will peak in 2021—and by 2037 will be eclipsed by Latin America and the Caribbean, which will grow to 768 million by 2058.¹

Combine those demographics with newly published World Bank research about the COVID–19 pandemic’s impact on the productivity gap between developed and emerging economies,² and you may perceive the Latin American market’s value with new appreciation. ACerS members in the region say that matters not just macroeconomically but also at the industry level.

A window to the world

“We are facing issues common with many countries around the world, like in Africa or Asia. When you provide a solution for these countries, you can make an impact on half the world,” says professor Henry Colorado of Colombia’s University of Antioquia. Latin American colleagues offer not only research expertise, he says, but also a more global mindset.

Professor Victor Carlos Pandolfelli of the Federal University of São Carlos hopes the United States will “open a bit more to the importance of networking with the world—and not waiting for the world to go to United States. I think that attitude will change due to a new, different world we’ll be living in.”

This year’s international report looks at the state of the industry in Brazil, Colombia, and Chile to assess the opportunities for joint research and ventures with Latin American partners.

Brazil: Pursuing eco-innovation and Industry 4.0 advances

Companies open to collaboration with university researchers will find Brazil not only welcomes, but to some extent requires, their participation. Faculty members must adhere to strict parameters for use of university or government funding—which, for example, often cannot cover salaries for postdocs or administrative staff.

“Most of the funds I have, including the building where I have my office and a laboratory, were sponsored by a company,” Pandolfelli says. That reality makes the market a key driver of his areas of research focus.

“We are the top country in Latin America in production of articles and scientific papers,” he says. “In the materials area, and specifically in the ceramic area, I would point out three major research areas: refractories—that is, high-temperature materials—glass, and sensors.” Of the three areas, industry plays the most prominent role in refractories, which also has the highest concentration of MSc and Ph.D. candidates. There are few jobs available in industry for those who specialize in glass, most of whom become academics, but Pandolfelli estimates that 60% of those who do graduate study in refractories go on to careers in industry.

Those with a concentration in sensors are more likely to teach, but some launch startups, Pandolfelli says. “There are just a few major industries in Brazil that produce electronics here. Most of the electronics come from abroad. In the refractory area, we have a much broader menu because the steel industry requires top quality products of the refractory producers,” he says.

Sustainability strategies

One of Pandolfelli’s areas of research interest is “how to adapt to the refractory area and high-temperature ceramic materials to industry 4.0,” which involves extensive data mining and simulations. His goal is to help advance the capacity to develop products that are not just competitive in price and performance but also friendly to the environment. “We are carrying out research to have material and tech knowledge that is competitive for the present and will match with the needs of the future,” he says.

Environmental concerns were the topic of the July 28 Online Symposium on Materials and Sustainability, co-presented by the Federal Universities of São Carlos and Rio Grande do Sul along with Portugal’s Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo.

And the schedule for the next Brazilian Ceramic Society Congress includes two seminars whose titles translate as Circular economy: The sustainability bridge for intensive use of natural/chemical materials and energy in the ceramics and buildings industry and Asbestos-free fiber cement, the renewable material.

Data-driven R&D

By law, intellectual property that emerges from research is owned equally by the university and whatever company funded the work. “The IP is co-shared, but the industry which funded the given research contract has the privilege of having a licensing agreement,” says professor Edgar Zanotto, an ACerS member who works for the Federal University of São Carlos and is editor of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. It can be frustrating negotiating with industry partners who balk at those terms. Inventors receive 1% of royalties.

Another challenge for Brazil is retaining its homegrown talent in physics, chemistry, and materials engineering. The country has excellent masters and doctoral students in those fields, but with postdoc salaries scarce, many find employment abroad.

And high-tech equipment, which is not manufactured in Brazil, presents a third complication for Zanotto and his colleagues. “We have to import this equipment, which is hard enough, okay. But sometimes we get some funding and we import equipment,” he says. “However, when they break, and they often break, it’s very expensive to get them fixed. Sometimes I had to fly a technician from Europe. And that’s the problem, keeping up with advanced research equipment.”

Despite these challenges, Zanotto is conducting research in three fields. The first is the fundamentals of crystal nucleation, crystal growth, and crystallization of glass. The second is glass-ceramics, “using the accumulated knowledge of nucleation crystallization to develop or to improve glass-ceramics with different types of properties in applications.” And the third is “using computer simulations and machine learning to develop new glasses with exotic combinations of properties.”

He embarked on this third field just two years ago and explains why he finds it exciting. “Suppose some industry needs glass which has a very high index of refraction, or special lenses, and a very low glass transition temperature (T_g) to be molded at very low temperatures. You can use machine learning to feed a given algorithm with data. And then you train the algorithm and ask it to suggest combinations of these compositions that would lead to very high refractive index, very low T_g, for instance. We are doing that already.”

Colombia: Seeking convergence of industrial and social progress

As in Brazil, academic research in Colombia depends on corporate underwriting, whether from domestic or international partners. Without it, research projects are not economically sustainable, says Colorado, whose work is concentrated in the diverse fields of composites, ceramics, arts, additive manufacturing, and solid waste management.

“I try not to work for a specific industry,” he says. “The work I do in waste management and circular economy, for instance, can be used in several sectors and industry types.”

But he adds that even as industry partnerships drive the focus of research, projects must consider sustainability and humanitarian factors, not just financial performance. “I always want my research converted into a successful product,” he says, but his further goal is to advance solutions for the environment, communities, small companies, or even local communities in need. “I am an engineer, and I like to work with industry because it’s one of the ways research becomes a real solution,” he says.

Low-tech practices are common in his region, so these partnerships provide an opportunity to raise industrial awareness of more advanced products and methods as they address social issues. His favorite success story involves how rubber tire waste on Colombia’s roads was reused in flexible tiles produced by both large corporations and smaller businesses.

The environment is both a beneficiary of Colorado’s research and the origin of some of his fields of study. “With respect to materials science, I am very interested in continuing my work in the amazing structure and properties of some plants and natural fibers from the Amazonia,” he says. In addition to continuing to teach engineering, he plans to pursue further research in the circular economy of ceramics and composites, cultural and art materials, and sustainable manufacturing.

More climate-friendly ceramics

The push for increased sustainability in ceramics is not restricted to university labs. The multinational Corona is among Colombian companies that have adopted improved environmental practice as a corporate value. The company’s business divisions include bathrooms and kitchens; surfaces, materials and paints; tableware; and industrial minerals and energy, and its operations include 20 plants in Colombia, two in the U.S., and three each in Mexico and Central America, as well as a global procurement office in China.

“In terms of the design and development of refractories with regard to environmental concerns, the key driver is the reduction of heat loss in order to reduce fuel consumption and emissions,” says Carlos Mesa, Latin America sales director of the company’s ERECOS refractories subsidiary. He adds the company applies circular economy principles to its manufacturing process. “Refractories that are uninstalled from a kiln or other equipment are thoroughly cleaned and used as a key input in the production of new refractories. This [process] helps reduce the dependence on virgin raw materials that have to be sourced from mines,” he says.

Corona’s mining practices include storing topsoil and organic layers for restoration after the mining activity is concluded, after which it gives local farmers access to land that is now being used for dairy cattle grazing and to raise strawberry and potato crops.

In partnership with the Spanish company Cementos Molins, Corona began operations at a new cement plant in the second half of 2019. The plant was constructed adjacent to the company’s high-grade limestone quarry to reduce transportation costs and emissions. Its design incorporates filters that minimize emissions of dust, nitrogen oxide gases, sulfur oxide gases, and its equipment’s energy consumption is 15% lower than that of other cement plants in the region. Water treatment plants and closed-circuit systems facilitate reuse of water.

The company also adopted use of noise-reducing technologies “to mitigate the impact of the cement plant on the surrounding natural environment and native animals” and conducted biodiversity studies that led to “the development of wildlife corridors (or green corridors) aimed to protect native and endangered species.”

Chile: Transforming copper into an element of global trade

Chile’s industrial sector is built quite literally from the ground up. Copper, the country’s top export, is the source of 20% of government revenue.³ (The state-owned CODELCO—the National Copper Corporation—is the world’s largest producer of copper and molybdenum.) And copper’s economic impact extends across the ceramic sector spectrum, from refractories to nanotechnology.

Founded more than 60 years ago, Refractory Iunge works in such sectors as copper, steel, cement, lime, and oil refineries and has licensing or partnership agreements with Allied Mineral, HarbisonWalker International, and Refractorios Peruanos SA (REPSA).

As in other countries, the industry is conscious of its responsibility to address environmental impacts. Pablo Valenzuela, one of the company’s owners and a member of the board, notes recycling is a company tradition. “The copper industry uses mainly magnesia chrome bricks,” he says. “Chrome may be in certain shapes and forms dangerous to the health. We have been trying to work very closely with copper producers in Chile to try to recycle those products and not end with them hidden or dumped in a place where they may harm human and animal health and the environment.”

A copper-based nano process

Copper’s antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties provided Chile with a point of entry into nanotechnology research and development. Nanoprocess, one enterprise that emerged as a result, has “the infrastructure to produce 500 kilograms of copper nanoparticles in aqueous suspension per year, dispersed and stabilized in deionized water, free of solvents and synthetic additives.”

The company adds: “The validated nanotechnology is modular, each module is capable of producing 10 kg of nano particles of high purity per day, and we can expand the number of modules according to the market requirement. We have the logistics to send concentrations of nano particles dispersed in water, in drums of 120 or 200 Lt, in sealed containers, anywhere in the world.”

See the directory for information about additional companies in Chile that are using copper as a launchpad for nanotechnology research and development as well as organizations that are cultivating advances in these areas as a means of promoting prosperity and social value.

Mining and mindset

Silica is another area of industry activity in Chile, where Minera Toro owns and oversees an estimated 3,000 hectares of mining properties. Those sites have a combined monthly production capacity of 6,000 tons of washed, graded sand. The company has stated a commitment to CO₂ neutral operations and use of renewable energy. An additional goal of its sustainability model is promoting social and economic progress as a means of reducing regional inequalities in this increasingly urbanized country.

What else does Chile have to offer to prospective research or commercial partners in the U.S.? Valenzuela stresses the importance of integrating this market and other Latin American markets into a more global outlook and cautions against being “too localist” in business. Relative to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the remainder of the Americas market is small today. “But it’s not always going to be that way,” he says. “It’s important to understand what’s going on, especially with local players, and be prepared to develop business relations in Latin America.”

In economically and politically volatile times, no enterprise can afford to overlook a country or region in the global marketplace. To learn more about opportunities in this region, consult the resources available through the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean,⁴ the umbrella organization of the American Chambers of Commerce in 23 countries. Its membership extends to 20,000 companies that account for more than 80% of U.S. investment in the region.

Read more: “Latin America market snapshots: Brazil, Chile, and Colombia provide perspectives on Latin America’s role in the world economy“

Read more: “From the Andes to the Amazon to the Panama Canal, plans to establish a research triangle for nanotechnology“

Read more: “Directory of companies, government agencies, associations, institutes, and universities in Latin America“

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Explore research in Central and South American on ACerS Publication Central

Available on ACerS Publication Central (https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com), Content Collections are groupings of articles curated by the editors of ACerS journals to highlight a single theme in ceramics and glass research.

ACerS’ latest collection, “Research in Central and South America,” features recent contributions to the science and engineering of ceramic, glass, and related materials and applications from Central and South American researchers. The authors include both well-known and up-and-coming researchers in our field with topics spanning the spectrum from traditional ceramics to advanced energy and healthcare applications.

Check out the collection at http://bit.ly/ACerSAmericasCollection.

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Capsule summary

Large potential

By 2037, Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to eclipse Europe in population. Taken in consideration with World Bank research on the COVID–19 pandemic’s impact, and the potential for Latin America as a global market is larger than many people realize.

Corporate funding

For some countries in Latin America, corporate underwriting is essential to conducting academic research. That reality makes the market a key driver of areas of research focus.

Sustainable focus

Even as industry partnerships drive the focus of research, projects must consider sustainability and humanitarian factors as well. Universities and companies throughout Latin America are working to address environmental impacts of their products.