In the Flemish town of Lommel, Heyaru Engineering has started the production of authentic Belgian synthetic diamonds, also called laboratory diamonds.
Normally, diamonds are created after a long process in which landslides convert the molecular carbon structure into diamonds. But for several decades, scientists and companies have been trying to imitate this natural process in the lab. Heyaru recently developed a technique for producing extremely pure diamonds. In a kind of microwave, the diamonds grow and develop, layer by layer. They are the very first diamonds made in Belgium. Professor of Experimental Physics at Hasselt University, Ken Haenen, states that diamonds from the lab are indistinguishable from real ones, even for connoisseurs. They have the same chemical composition and optical characteristics, only the price differs.
Today, synthetic diamonds already represent 2% of the jewellery market and celebrities such as Lady Gaga have already been noticed with them. As it happens, because diamond conducts electricity well, the company is thinking of using it for other purposes as well, especially for energy applications or in super-powerful computers. Over the next ten years, Heyaru will invest more than 200 million euros in additional diamond furnaces in order to increase the production capacity to approximately 200,000 kilos per year.
