First Graphene - Page 9

First Graphene has announced that its Commercial Graphene Facility (CGF) was officially opened on Thursday 23 November 2017.

In his remarks at the opening FGR Chairman, Warwick Grigor stated This Facility represents both the completion of one journey and the commencement of another.. Mr Grigor went on to explain the first part of the journey had commenced in May 2015 when testing of FGR’s was undertaken at the University of Adelaide. The tests were done, and they confirmed that not only could graphene be recovered, but of the 50 or more types of graphite that Professor Dusan Losic and his team had tested, the vein graphite gave the best results.

First Graphite reports that it is working with the University of Adelaide to develop FireStop, a non-toxic, low cost fire retardant for the building industry which could help in preventing fire disasters. FGR states that the effectiveness of this product combined with its simplicity could see its commercialization as early as 2018.

The University of Adelaide reports extensive test work on FireStop using FGR’s graphene as the primary ingredient, confirming it is well suited for the purpose. Test work has involved bench scale tests for the preparation of FireStop solutions at different graphene concentration levels. As reported, all results have been very positive to date with the large platelet size of the FGR graphene offering useful advantages.

First Graphite recently announced the receipt of government approvals for its planned commercial graphene production facility, which is aimed at being operational in Q4 of 2017. FGR said that the production facility will be funded from existing cash balances.

Initial capacity will reportedly be in the order of 20-25 tonnes per annum of saleable graphene, based on a single shift operation, five days per week. Multiple shifts could escalate production rates to globally significant levels in the event suitable sales contracts are negotiated.

First Graphite, the Australia-based graphite miner and graphene producer, recently announced that it has become a Tier 1 partner to the Australian Research Council Research Hub for Graphene Enabled Industry Transformation (ARC Graphene Research Hub).

The ARC Graphene Research HUB aims to provide knowledge, innovative research and commercial development of graphene technologies across broad areas. Under the Terms of the ARC Hub agreement FGR will focus on the areas of fire retardants, where the Company already has global licence to exploit the technology, development of conductive graphene coatings and development of graphene polymer composites.

Researchers at Swinburne University are progressing towards producing commercially viable, chemical-free, long-lasting, safe energy devices. The team is developing the Bolt Electricity Storage Technology (BEST) a graphene oxide-based supercapacitor offering high performance and low-cost energy storage.

The team explains that this technology is environmentally friendly, and a patent was recently filed on it. It is reportedly on the brink of becoming a commercial prototype. Also stated was that investment in the technology's development will soon be under way through Graphene Solutions, a joint venture between graphite miner First Graphite Resources (FGR) and Australia-based electronics company Kremford.

Researchers from Flinders University and First Graphite plan to use a machine called Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD) to produce high-quality graphene for industrial use. Based on previous graphite research involving the VFD, First Graphite plans to scale up the process to a commercial level with the potential of delivering high-value carbon materials to global markets.

The VFD was used to demonstrate unboiling an egg, and has also been used to slice carbon nanotubes accurately to an average length of 170 nanometres using only water, a solvent and a laser. It is now being tested to prove its potential as a commercially viable graphene producer.