September 2018

Sweden-based Graphmatech develops and produces novel graphene-based nanocomposite materials, under the Aros Graphene brand. The company recently secured an investment from ABB and Walerud Ventures, and the company's CFO, Bjorn Lindh, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had to him.

Q: Thank you for your time Bjorn. Can you give us a short introduction to Graphmatech's Aros Graphene materials, and how it differs from other graphene materials on the market?

Graphmatech has invented the novel material, Aros Graphene that keeps most of graphene's features, while making it easy to use in large industrial scales by preventing agglomeration, which is a key challenge for the use of graphene. Aros graphene is produced in powder form and can be used as additive, as coating or even in 3D-printing. The market introduction and launch of first products, filaments and thermal paste, will be introduced to the market in 2019.

Directa Plus has announced the world’s first road resurfaced with a super-modifier containing the company’s graphene. Directa said the road surface is on a section of Rome’s Strada Provinciale Ardeatina. It is part of a commercial test of Ecopave, which is based on Directa’s Graphene Plus graphene product.

Directa has developed Ecopave with Iterchimica, an Italian-based maker of products that enhance asphalt performance and the laying of road surfaces in order to increase safety, environmental sustainability, and efficiency.

Directa Plus has reported doubling its first-half revenues as more products containing the Company's graphene additives were launched. Revenues for the six months to June rose to €574,000 (€278,000), while losses reduced to €1.75 million from €2.1 million.

Clothing and accessory brands such as Alfredo Grassi, Arvind and Oakley are developing graphene-enhanced items using Directa’s G+ technology, while Grafysorber is a treatment to treat water contaminated with oil.

Advanced materials group Versarien has acquired 62% of Spain-based Gnanomat for around £2.6 million (around $3.4 million USD).

Payment would be settled with £673,000 in cash and the issue of around 1.3 million Versarien shares at 150p each. The cash component would be used by Gnanomat to fund the scale up of a pilot plant. In addition, Versarien would provide a loan of €1.3 million.

Log 9 Materials, an India-based startup incubated at the TIDES incubation centre at IIT Roorkee, has identified use cases for graphene in energy and filtration and has deployed graphene-based products in these two areas.

A few years ago, the Company reportedly launched a product called PuFF, a graphene-based filter that can be attached to cigarettes to reduce the toxic chemicals from smoking by 50% with the smoker’s user experience not being affected. The product is now being sold by a pharma company under the brand name ‘Filtr’. Recently , Log 9 also launched its Oil Sorbent Pads LSP 20.

Clean TeQ and Ionic Industries have formed a Joint Venture to progress the commercialization of graphene-based water treatment technologies.

The Companies stated that move follows the last 18 months in which Clean TeQ and Ionic have undertaken an extensive program of work together with Monash University to develop, manufacture and apply graphene oxide membranes for water filtration applications.

Researchers at Hong Kong-based advanced materials company Surwon Technology say they have developed a way to integrate graphene into concrete, significantly increasing the construction material's tensile strength and resistance to water.

According to data from initial tests, the resulting combination is twice as strong and three times as resistant to water than standard, construction-grade concrete. Surwon Technology’s Chief Technical Officer said that the development had enormous implications for construction standards, particularly those in areas susceptible to flooding and those with a history of earthquakes and tremors.

Norway-based Graphene Oxide developer Abalonyx says that there is a strong interest in graphene oxide (GO) solutions in the research community, across a wide range of applications. While first industrial adoption is "on the horizon", Abalonyx estimates that industry acceptance is strongly related to cost.

Abalonyx' current production cost is around €800 per Kg (dry weight basis) - since the Company's GO is currently used by researchers and early R&D efforts. Abalonyx estimates that as production volume goes up, the price of production could reach around 22 Euro / Kg - which will make GO applicable for areas such as concrete and asphalt. The projection is based on the company's own extrapolation of today's capacity and the effect of full-automation. The cost does not include waste handling (although Abalonyx believes that it will be able to handle that at no cost). Abalonyx is currently selling its GO at €1,300 - €4,000 per Kg depending on amount and grade (€1.3 - €4 per gram).

Skeleton Technologies and British bus manufacturer Wrights Group have announced the signing of a high-volume, multi-million-euro contract for the next 5 years. Skeleton Technologies will supply graphene-based supercapacitors to the latest KERS enabled hybrid-electric double and single deck buses produced by the Wrights Group.

The demand to reduce CO₂ emissions in city centers is one of the key drivers for WrightBus to implement new technology which cuts such emissions by saving fuel. The integration of graphene-based supercapacitors into test WrightBus double deck buses reportedly enables a 36% fuel saving compared to a UK-based EuroVI diesel bus baseline. It also adds at least another 3 passengers to the capacity of these buses compared to a lithium battery-based hybrid equivalent.

Huffington Capital Corp (trading in Canada under TSXV:HU.H), a capital pool company, announced that it is set to acquire US-based Grapheneca. The financial terms were not disclosed, but he two companies signed a letter of intent and the agreement calls for Grapheneca to complete a $4.5 million CAD private placement.

Grapheneca (Nano Graphene Inc) is producing high-quality graphene flakes and graphene composite materials at its New York production facility, using the company's patented production process.