When Konstantin Notman speaks about graphene nanotubes, he does so with the conviction of someone who has spent more than a decade willing an unlikely idea into a global business.
The CEO of OCSiAl was already a successful industrial entrepreneur when he agreed in 2012 to join a team pursuing what he calls an “absolutely crazy” project turning a Nobel Prize winning discovery into a universal additive for advanced materials. Today, OCSiAl is widely recognised as a scale up shaping the future of batteries, composites, tyres, coatings and next generation sensors.
Notman was born in Siberia and built his career in manufacturing and transformations across Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, Germany and Luxembourg. But the graphene nanotube idea changed everything. “It was difficult to imagine that with one material you can change more than 50 percent of all materials around us,” he says. “It sounds like magic but in fact this is pure physics.” Graphene nanotubes are single atom thick sheets of carbon rolled into tiny tubes with extreme mechanical strength and conductivity. Their versatility allows OCSiAl to supply more than thirty product lines, from battery dispersions to composite additives.
The company’s growth is now driven largely by batteries. OCSiAl is already present in up to a quarter of the smartphones produced today and in more than one million electric vehicles, with several million more expected next year. Demand, however, is outpacing supply.
This backdrop explains OCSiAl’s decision to build its flagship manufacturing site in Differdange. The facility will produce up to 700 tonnes of graphene nanotubes per year and is estimated to generate around 1 billion dollars in annual revenue. The first phase is targeted for 2028, with the second following in 2029. The site will employ more than 300 people and recruitment is set to start only six months before production begins. Half of the team will be engineers and technologists. The remainder will be technicians operating the manufacturing processes.
Why Luxembourg? Notman hears the question constantly. “Everyone has the idea that Luxembourg is a financial capital, and everyone is surprised why we decided to build a big factory in this very expensive country.” His answer is pragmatic. The country attracts international talent, offers one of the cheapest industrial electricity prices in Europe, provides guaranteed green energy and has become OCSiAl’s centre of gravity. The company’s management team and one of its major R and D hubs are based here. “We think that we are Europeans. We would like to develop our business here. We would like to live in Luxembourg.”
OCSiAl has already raised more than 400 million dollars for its development and is preparing another major round next year.
Looking ahead, Notman sees OCSiAl becoming a multibillion revenue public company within fifteen years, present in every automotive battery and in many new consumer markets. Its labs in Luxembourg, Shanghai and Serbia are developing flexible conductive materials for medical sensors, artificial leather for vehicles and hospital beds, and other innovations that Notman describes as “crazy in a positive manner”.
“Believe me, it is very pleasant to bring to the life of real people something good,” he says. “We are working with the future of materials.”
This piece includes AI-generated text, reviewed and edited by Jess Bauldry
