# Empirical Advances turns agri-food waste into carbon materials for supercapacitors and batteries

- Published: 2026-11-15 22:26 UTC
- Section: Machines & Making › Materials science
- Tags: Empirical Advances, carbon materials from waste, activated carbon for supercapacitors, biographite for batteries, XGRAF, agri-food waste recycling, lithium and sodium batteries, energy storage materials, Madrid Science Park, CSIC
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-4947d48c4feb707a78373f16_empirical_advances_turns/

**The Madrid startup makes activated carbon and biographite from agri-food waste. Both materials are validated by CSIC and Energy Une and are being tested by European supercapacitor makers.**

![Empirical Advances turns agri-food waste into carbon materials for supercapacitors and batteries](https://realtech.media/media/2026/11/04aaecfe59d187c4.jpg)
*cope.es*

Empirical Advances, a science-based startup from the Madrid Science Park, collects agri-food industry waste and converts it into high-value carbon materials for energy storage, cope.es reported on 15 November 2026. The company's work was discussed in the COPE programme "Lo que viene", hosted by José Ángel Cuadrado. [1] According to the report, thousands of tonnes of such waste are currently discarded or burned. [1]

## Goal and process

CEO and co-founder Paloma Monviedo said the energy transition requires not only producing clean energy but also storing it safely. This calls for materials that Europe largely still imports. [1] The company has two aims: to make these materials in Europe sustainably from local waste, and to bring the technology to industrial scale together with European manufacturers of supercapacitors and batteries. [1]

The process is the company's own and is patented. Monviedo said two families of materials are made with the same process: the waste is "cooked" with water under pressure and temperature, then transformed into the exact structure that a particular storage system needs. [1]

## Two material lines

The research was carried out together with CSIC and the Universidad Autónoma. It produced two lines of materials. [1]

The first, Export, is an activated carbon so porous that one gram has a surface area equivalent to almost ten tennis courts. It is intended for charging and discharging energy in seconds. [1] The second, XGRAF, is a biographite for lithium and sodium batteries, obtained directly from biomass. [1]

Both materials have been validated by CSIC and Energy Une. They are now being tested by supercapacitor manufacturers in Europe. [1] The report gives no performance figures, waste volumes or production dates.

## Sources

1. [cope.es](https://www.cope.es/programas/lo-que-viene/audios/elixir-guardar-energia-startup-espanola-transforma-residuos-motor-energia-renovable-europea-20261115_3475257.html)
2. [ecosistemastartup.com](https://ecosistemastartup.com/empirical-advances-residuos-que-almacenan-energia)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-4947d48c4feb707a78373f16_empirical_advances_turns/