{"id":1200,"date":"2026-04-14T11:37:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/?p=1200"},"modified":"2026-04-29T14:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T14:02:51","slug":"zolarize-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/batch-2-eng\/zolarize-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"Zolarize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-fd412670 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-right:var(--wp--preset--spacing--80);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--20);padding-left:var(--wp--preset--spacing--80)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<div style=\"height:27px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/zolarize.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-392\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4299065960869586;width:302px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Teams_Zolarize-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-674\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5000000310980761;object-fit:cover;width:360px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Founder Prof. Dr. Matthias Sperl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"taxonomy-category is-style-post-terms-1 is-style-post-terms-1--1 wp-block-post-terms\"><a href=\"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/category\/batch-2-eng\/\" rel=\"tag\">Batch #2<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Construction sand has become one of the most sought-after raw materials worldwide. As the global population grows, demand for sand has tripled, but only a small fraction of the world\u2019s sand deposits is suitable for the construction industry. This is because it must meet specific criteria\u2014it cannot be too round or too fine-grained\u2014and therefore cannot simply be replaced by desert sand, which is available in abundance. The startup <strong>Zolarize<\/strong>, a spin-off from the German Aerospace Center in Cologne, has tackled this problem and developed a sustainable, carbon-neutral process for producing construction sand from desert sand. The process uses solar energy and consists of two steps: First, the desert sand is baked together in a sintering process and then broken up using a crusher. The material properties of the resulting granulate even exceed those of construction sand approved in Germany.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Construction sand has become one of the most sought-after raw materials worldwide. As the global population grows, demand for sand has tripled, but only a small fraction of the world\u2019s sand deposits is suitable for the construction industry. This is because it must meet specific criteria\u2014it cannot be too round or too fine-grained\u2014and therefore cannot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batch-2-eng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1201,"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200\/revisions\/1201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accelerator.high-tech.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}