About Us

Who we are & what we do

We are part of Croda, the name behind the high performance ingredients and technologies in some of the biggest, most successful industrial and consumer brands.

Focus

Our business focusses on innovating, manufacturing and selling bio-based phase change materials to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers around the world.

Sustainability

Sustainability is integral to everything we do at Croda. That’s why our innovations satisfy demanding customers and end specifiers, enabling them to respond to growing environmental awareness and legislative changes. We have evolved into the responsible and dedicated partner we are today, using science and technical experience to deliver sustainable performance.

People

Our experts have in-depth knowledge of the science behind phase change materials and they are crucial to our business in supporting your needs. They focus on working with you to develop optimised solutions to your application needs that fit your expectations. We also offer a wide range of analytical technologies as well as testing facilities. Having sales, R&D and manufacturing locations around the globe, makes us a reliable partner and direct supplier, wherever you are.

Meet Our Experts

Marco Auerbach - Technology Development Manager

After my graduation in Chemical Engineering I started my career at Croda beginning 1991. During this period I had various jobs, always related to R&D or technical support. In the beginning I was a member of lubricants and after 13 years, switched to industrial chemicals. In 2011 I took over the lead of this group and we started the development of bio-based PCMs. With significant customer interest across a range of applications, we quickly expanded into this market and the R&D group grew as well to support all activities.

PCMs are a fascinating group of chemicals that have high potential in a very big variety of applications and although we learned a lot, there is still room to discover. We are passionate about our bio-based PCMs and wanting them to perform at the highest possible level, so we put a lot of effort in developing the right products and getting the production right. Our goal is to have happy customers trusting our reliable PCM quality. We are one of very few companies, that design, develop, produce and sell PCMs, all from one organisation.

I am proud having the honour to lead the PCM team that is made up of fantastic people, having passion for PCMs, a variety of knowledge and skills and the determination to develop the best products for our customers.

Ron van Aken - Applications Scientist

In 1988 I started at ICI Polyurethanes as a process development chemist in the processing of PU-polyols and prepolymers.
Then in 1991 I joined the Gouda site as development chemist and in time I have  been involved in the development of lubricants, polyglycerol, radical polymerization and  process optimization.

Since 2010 I have been working on emulsion systems and phase change materials. The PCM work is very interesting as it gives an opportunity to work on a project which potentially improves the world we’re living in! The work consists of the synthesis of the products, evaluation of various thermal and physical properties and the up-scaling to pilot and then on to full commercial manufacturing. In the past 7 years I have helped in the development of more than 10 products in this application market.

I have extensive knowledge of the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, a well regarded and widely used thermal analysis method. Besides that I also support our commercial team to help respond to customers' technical questions. 

Altuğ Altay - Market Applications Specialist

After completing my Post-Master degree in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, I have worked with various characterisation techniques, modelling of material properties and structure-property relationship of several materials. Since December 2015, I am a member of Croda family and working on my new challenge: PCMs. Despite the simplicity of the phase transition phenomenon, the demand for the PCMs from the market is quite challenging. Together with the technical team in Gouda, I am involved in several development projects such as modification and assessment of various PCM thermal and physical properties as well as creating solutions to technical requirements that our customers encounter. Such diversified projects can only be carried out adequately with the help of our extensive technical and analytical resources.

All in all, it is highly exciting to be right at the core of a growing technology with plenty of application opportunities. With our experience on bringing the products to the market and our expertise on chemistry, we constantly work on developing our PCMs and create new ideas.

Jérome Gonthier - Applications Scientist

After a Master’s degree in Chemistry in France in 2007, I started my career in The Netherlands within the R&D Kitchen Care group of Diversey Sealed Air.

Four years ago I was happy to join Croda’s family as Application Scientist for CrodaTherm™. I focus my efforts on the extension of the CrodaTherm ™ range. This includes the development of CrodaTherm for low temperature applications and the development of new physical properties. I make sure that the new products meet the right performance criteria and make the link between lab and up-scaling.

This is a very exciting challenge because CrodaTherm is an innovative technology and we are constantly developing our range. The potential range of applications is huge and I am glad be part of this technically challenging area.