25 Years Research & Development

From a personal perspective it is remarkable to be the CEO of an organisation like nanoFlowcell. I am grateful that I followed my vision and founded Juno Technology Products AG twenty five years ago, the predecessor of what we are today. We started in a very small space and over time became a globally recognised research centre. The most visible progress is in our nanoFlowcell technology and its applications. When I began this journey I was alone.

Today we have access to a wide network of research and engineering expertise that supports our projects, including the QUANT EV developments. The experiences along the way have been extraordinary. I have worked with exceptional people from many countries and collaborating with scientists and engineers is one of the most rewarding parts of my work.

We operate in many different industries. I began with research in solar technologies and could not have imagined that one day I would lead a company that develops mobile energy systems with a significant positive impact on the environment and on people’s lives. Knowing that our work contributes to clean and safe energy technologies motivates me and the entire nanoFlowcell team.

There is no secret. Innovation requires an active search for new ideas. You must be willing to try new approaches and step away from traditional thinking. This may sound simple but it is very demanding. I have devoted most of my life to studying advanced energy systems. Many brilliant minds could have done similar work, but I added determination, scientific independence and the courage to question established assumptions. I trusted my analysis, trusted my team and worked with persistence and discipline.

Creating an innovation is one thing. Developing a disruptive technology is something entirely different. Innovation management is not only about the scientific breakthrough. It is also about sales, service and the organisational structure that brings a technology into the real world. How do you sell a solution no one has seen before. How do you convince a manufacturer to rely on a new core technology. We spend a considerable portion of our time on these questions, often more than on the research itself.

It is demanding and complex work with new problems to solve every day. In the early years I often felt that I was working against established ideas, because classical scientific research is based on accepted axioms. As an independent researcher I do not have to accept these assumptions or follow existing research agendas in order to obtain funding.

At nanoFlowcell I can think freely. I question assumptions and examine details that others might overlook. This is how progress happens. The industry is evolving rapidly due to political, social and technological developments. We see new opportunities for our technologies every day and we understand the impact of our work. This motivates us to go further and refine our solutions continuously. We did not stop with the flow cell itself. We also developed electric drive systems and complete vehicles such as the QUANT 48VOLT and the QUANTiNO 48VOLT. These innovations would not exist if we had accepted common assumptions without challenge.

I have many interests but science defines my purpose. As CEO and CTO of nanoFlowcell I am fortunate to combine my curiosity with meaningful work.

I also have a strong passion for music. I enjoy connecting with people and creating art. I love driving high performance cars and even competed in professional motorsport for a well known Italian brand. I am fascinated by advanced materials and technologies, which led me to earn a pilot licence for the PC 7 Mk II. I also own a watchmaking company that produces mechanical timepieces where engineering and artistic expression come together.

Many people share these passions but not everyone keeps an open mind. As a researcher and engineer I encountered scepticism and envy along the way. My goal was never to prove anything to others. I follow my work because I believe it will help create a better future. That has always been my motivation.

You refer to the card that says “Little things make big things happen”. It is not a slogan. It is a lesson I learned during many years of research. By paying attention to small irregularities in data analysis and not ignoring them as noise, I achieved important results.

We are often our own greatest obstacles. A research and development organisation must ensure that its achievements become obsolete as quickly as possible. It cannot rest on success but must continuously create new solutions. In our field, success can easily become the enemy of progress. Many companies develop an important new product and then spend years asking how to make it a little better, a little cheaper, a little more refined. I am no exception. My tendency toward perfection could have led us into the same pattern. Without recognising this, we would have invested time and energy into incremental improvements rather than into fundamental advances. The result would have been products that were only slightly, not meaningfully, better.

We must avoid letting our innovation momentum revolve around making products faster, better or cheaper than competitors. I want to create products for which there is no competition. That requires returning again and again to fundamental questions. Are there different ways to solve the problem. Are there approaches that change the cost structure or raise performance. This is how we moved from a single technology to low voltage electric drive systems and eventually to complete applications such as the QUANT 48VOLT.

It would not be true to say no. In the days of Juno Technology Products AG I realised projects with limited financial resources. I often exchanged my technologies with others for access to their technologies, almost like a barter system. However, my goal was not to build a catalogue of patents but to make a living from my work.

There were disappointing and frustrating periods due to limited funding, yet I never sought public research grants or subsidies. These funds come with obligations that would have restricted my intellectual independence. Today I am grateful for that decision and for having investors who understand unconventional ideas, who recognise the time required for real innovation and who provide patient capital. We are fortunate not to depend on public funding and to have sufficient financial resources to advance our research, development and production plans without external pressure from capital markets or short term profit expectations. In discussions with selected strategic investors we concluded that establishing industrial bi ION production and bringing nanoFlowcell technology to market at scale will require investments in the range of several billion Euro.

The fundamentals remain unchanged. Every innovation begins with a brilliant idea. Then you evaluate whether the idea works and whether it is worth pursuing from both a technical and commercial perspective. This is the enjoyable phase because it is intellectually stimulating. After that comes the demanding part, transforming the concept into a real product. I call this the donkeywork of innovation. We are excited by an idea, but then we spend what feels like an eternity in the workshop trying to create a product that functions reliably and can ideally be produced on an industrial scale.

Fortunately, some things have changed. I continuously integrate new technologies into our workflow to make research and development more efficient. Competitiveness in our field increasingly depends on digital capabilities and the effective use of artificial intelligence.

For more than twenty five years we have invested in advanced digital design, engineering and development environments as well as in our own AI competences. We develop and refine new methods, often down to the atomic and molecular level, supported by AI generated simulations and material analyses with very high accuracy. This environment has removed much of the tedious trial and error from innovation and accelerates the path from concept to market readiness.

There is also a downside. I am concerned about the extremely high costs associated with patents and the limited protection that intellectual property systems actually provide. What took NFC twenty five years to develop could in theory be reverse engineered with the right technologies within days.

I have worked on many projects and enjoyed them all. The QUANT E, completed in 2014, remains important to me because it was the first mobile application of our nanoFlowcell technology. It demonstrated the performance potential of our flow cell system and became the first road legal electric vehicle powered by nanoFlowcell. That was a proud moment.

However, the QUANTiNO is my personal favourite. This project challenged us in many dimensions: low voltage drive systems, the first flow cell with variable output control, new drive efficiencies and a fully electric driving distance of more than one thousand four hundred kilometres.

Our most important project is QUANT City, our new research and development facility with integrated production for nanoFlowcell membranes and bi ION electrolyte liquids. Industrial scale production of bi ION is essential for our entire business model and for all future nanoFlowcell applications.

A genuine project of the heart is my work in human robotics. It grew out of our advanced methods for integrating AI into our research and engineering processes. I want to unite the full range of NFC competences in this project: flow cell and low voltage technology, materials science, electrical and mechanical engineering, advanced programming. It is a major challenge and has been my favourite project for some years now. I am convinced it will shape the future of NFC.

There are countless moments linked to incremental progress and important breakthroughs. Many of my most vivid memories come from working with exceptional people. To them I say with gratitude and respect, as I have for the past twenty five years: I look forward to the next project, the next venture and the next challenge we will face together.

I am energised by the direction of our work and I look forward to all challenges ahead. Most notably QUANT City, our new research and development centre for international flow cell energy research. It will accelerate the global shift toward new energy solutions and drive our own business forward.

Clean energy, sustainable mobility and environmental protection dominate public discourse. This is the future. We have focused on these topics for twenty five years and I feel the opposite of exhaustion. I feel that we have just begun the process of energising the world. We have accomplished remarkable work and are well prepared for the next steps.

As the creator of the nanoFlowcell flow cell I hope this technology will be given the opportunity to realise its full potential. It is a unique form of energy conversion that operates without compromise.

My wish for NFC is clear. I hope we continue to deliver research and development that impresses customers and partners through strong and innovative products. I hope that our technical achievements contribute to a healthier environment and that we remain committed to supporting economic and social well being without placing undue stress on the natural world.