X-MINING X-TALK Vol.2 For creating the Heat-beat Greenhouse.
CWO™ Product Development Story

Our first involvement with the agriculture industry was when a trading company asked us to develop an insect netting for greenhouses. We managed to develop insect netting that was durable and breathable as well as keeping the insects out, but there was one issue we couldn’t quite resolve. That one thorn in our side was thermal insulation. During the summer, the temperature inside greenhouses could reach 50℃, which negatively affected the crop’s growth. While trying to develop a net with better thermal insulation using various materials, we came across CWO™.

When Mr.Noto first contacted me, I was responsible for developing the new application for CWO™ in Corporate R&D, but I would never have imagined possible uses for agriculture purposes, much less for greenhouses. I was born in Tohoku and had always thought that greenhouses were only used to grow crops in the winter, so I didn’t understand why they would require heat insulation. During our first meeting, however, he explained how temperatures rose to extreme levels inside greenhouses during summer, causing heat shock to the crops. I got it right away after hearing that. I could see how our product would benefit them and it made me more eager to help.

If the sole purpose was to lower the temperature inside greenhouses, all we would have needed to do would be to block off the sunlight. However, because crops need sunlight to grow, blocking off the sunlight would obviously reduce the yield. We had to come up with a way to let sunlight through but block off the heat to help farmers improve their yields. That was the genesis of our partnership.

Not at all. It was filled with obstacles. The hardest part was the dispersion of CWO™ into the fiber materials.

When mixing CWO™ with other polymers, it has to be properly dispersed to get the heat insulation effect. Additionally, turning the polymer into threads and weaving them often cause them to break. We use dispersing agents to prevent this, but the varieties of dispersing agents range from tens to hundreds depending on the polymer they are being mixed with. While selecting dispersing agents is one of strengths due to extensive knowledge, we were unable to produce proper dispersal in the beginning. Whenever we thought we had achieved proper dispersal, it turned out not to be translucent enough. After overcoming multiple obstacles, we finally got on the right track in 2020.

Yes, it took 2–3 years just to achieve proper dispersal. Mr.Kumada provided lots of support throughout that period. Without his cooperation, it would have been particularly difficult to do the weatherability tests and dispersion evaluation as both were costly and needed special equipment. We then asked Fukuoka Nobuyuki, Professor, Attached farm, Ishikawa Prefectural University, Ishikawa, Japan to run tests to evaluate the material’s absorption rate of visible light and near-infrared rays and got his seal of approval, which gave birth to the product we now call “Aotenjo”.

The sample of “Aotenjo”

The main motivator was my desire to measure up to Mr.Noto’s enthusiasm and passion as best as I could. I wonder where Mr.Noto’s zeal and desire to faces challenges comes from.

I’m the type of person who refuses to give up when I have set my mind on doing something. This puts me into a state where I keep on thinking about the problem in every waking moment. When developing something, efficiency with trial and error is essential, as is keeping motivation and the feeling “We’re going to get this done!” high and continuing to push forward. Development cannot be done alone. If my motivation drops, the people around me will also lose motivation, which will prevent us from coming up with anything new. You don’t even have to say “That’s impossible” out loud; other people get the vibe from your attitude.

Through collaborating with Mr.Noto, my desire to contribute to agriculture gradually increased, which eventually boosted my drive to complete the project alongside him. As Sumitomo Metal Mining is a non-ferrous mining company, extracting minerals is part of our business. To some extent, our company has profited off the minerals that we took from the earth, so I have always felt the obligation to give back to society and the earth in some way or another. That was when Mr.Noto’s offer came along with the chance to contribute to agriculture which reinforced my resolve to tackle this goal in earnest.

5 years have passed since I first met Mr.Kumada and I have always had the feeling that our partnership is built on that shared drive, so I have never felt uneasy and have always had total faith in him, which reassured me. He created an environment in which we could push forward smoothly with development. With so much momentum built up, anyone could run the final lap.

While directly listening to Mr.Hayashi’s story as a producer gives me a little bit of confidence that I have made a contribution, I believe it is our duty and responsibility to continue promoting wider usage of “Aotenjo” to help Japan’s entire agriculture industry improve efficiency and yield. In terms of benefits to our company, wider adoption of the product will allow us to develop more products that are higher in quality, more interesting, and more useful.

This time around, I actually got the opportunity to meet the producers at work and see for myself how they have increased their yields and managed to keep their crops healthy using our company’s new products. This has definitely given me great joy and reaffirmed my conviction in the enormous potential that CWO™ may still hold. Unlike other projects that I have been involved in the inorganic nano materials business, this is the first project that made me feel so elated, a feeling that I may never have experienced had I not been contacted by Notoshichi Co., Ltd.

As our company’s main business is manufacturing fabrics for sportswear, we are currently thinking about developing textiles that use CWO™ for sportswear too. You can’t sustain a business for long sticking to the same thing you did yesterday. Without trial and error, any company is bound to fail in the long run. Keeping that in mind, we are eager to continue working closely with Sumitomo Metal Mining.

What Mr.Noto said, that “You can’t sustain a business for long doing the same thing you did yesterday” is one of the philosophies of X-MINING and it resonates deeply with me.
X-TALK ~Project Background & Objectives and Future Aspirations~
In chemistry, 1+1 does not always equal 2. Unexpected anomalies may occur that turn 1+1 into 5 or even 6 different things. If unforeseen chemical reactions occur out of the blue, we may get a product nobody has ever imagined before. The “Aotenjo” that we developed together with Mr.Noto is the perfect example of such a product and we as a company are truly honored to own the technology that made it possible. We would love to continue nurturing the chemistry that we have developed with Notoshichi Co., Ltd. and are eager to hear the readers’ ideas and co-create with you as well.