Graphene Nanochem - Page 2

The Malaysian energy company Scomi Energy has announced the development of three graphene-enhanced lubricants called Plat Drill, Confi Graph Lube and Hype Graph Lube. The lubricants, based on graphene nanotechnology, help prolong the lifespan of the diamond drillbits used in oil drills. The products improve on the efficiency of the drilling process and reduce maintenance cost. Scomi Energy has patented this technology with its partners and is in the process of rolling it out to its customers in FY 2016 (which actually means by March 2017).

Since Scomi is collaborating with Graphene Nanochem on the development of the PlatDrill, It is reasonable to assume that the Confi Graph and Hype Graph are also the fruit of this cooperation. Graphene Nanochem is presumably in charge of the technical development while Scomi will most likely handle marketing and sales. 

Graphene NanoChem announced that after 9 months of independent testing of the PlatDrill Series by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research - National Institute of Oceanography, India, it has concluded that at 84.81%, the biodegradation level of the PlatDrill Series is 25% higher than the standard specified by the OECD guidelines. Based on this biodegradation rate the PlatDrill Series has been classified as "readily" biodegradable with a non-toxic ranking.

Worries of water and environmental contamination risks due to increased use of drilling fluids, gas and discharge of drilling waste mud and drill cuttings into the marine environment have been growing, resulting in harsher environmental restrictions in the chemicals and substances used for drilling. Biodegradation is a crucial property of drilling fluids to ensure that the fluids do not remain in the environment for long. "Readily" biodegradable refers to a substance that degrades efficiently and completely.

Graphene NanoChem announced that it has launched the commercial deployment of its latest product offering, an oilfield recovery additive named PlatsurF through Scomi Oiltools, its joint venture partner. PlatsurF removes blockages caused by drilling residues or from production waste and reverses shortfalls in production caused by formation damage. The company states that smartfluids product "vastly improves" production rates in previously damaged wells with reduced waste generation.

Scomi will supply PlatsurF to the market, and has placed an order on behalf of an international oil company that is serviced by Scomi for an approximate 50 well drilling programme in Thailand using PlatsurF. Graphene NanoChem relays that the order will consist of an initial deployment of 40 drums of recovery additive for two wells in Thailand, as part of Scomi introducing the additive as a "product substitution".

Graphene Nanochem announced the signing of an agreement with what they called "one of the world's top five international oil companies" for testing and evaluating its PlatDrill series.

Graphene Nanochem's joint venture partner, Scomi-Platinum, was the one to sign the agreement with the unrevealed oil company. The agreement includes the performance of tests by the oil company to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2015, when a potential commercial agreement could be discussed. 

The Graphene Nanochem group aims to expand the market share for PlatDrill and the agreement  aims to support the objective of the group in establishing presence and increasing sales worldwide.

UK's Graphene Nanochem announced a profitable fourth quarter in 2014 partly thanks to successful sales of its PlatDrill and PlatQuartZ products. This profit is especially noteworthy in light of former projections by the company that warned of losses due to delays in the deployment of its PlatDrill series.

Graphene Nanochem declared that it has remained focused in advancing key areas of applications of its nanotechnology platforms: Performance Chemicals, Energy and Nanocomposites with the Water Treatment solution as the latest expansion.

Graphene Nanochem PLC, the performance chemicals and advanced materials company that is malaysian based and traded in the AIM of the London Stock Exchange, has recently entered into an agreement with the Singapore-based HWV which designs, develops and builds water treatment systems.

The two companies agreed to collaborate in order to design and commercialize the PlatClean V1 System, a graphene-enhanced water treatment system for the oil and gas industry. 

Graphene Nanochem entered into a product development and collaboration agreement with Sync R&D - for the development of a next-gen graphene-enhanced Li-Ion battery solution for electric buses, under the Electric Bus 1 Malaysia program.

Under the agreement, Graphene NanoChem and Sync R&D will develop and integrate a graphene-enhanced Li-on Battery into a prototype electric shuttle bus in Malaysia. Sync R&D will design and develop the shuttle bus while Graphene NanoChem will design and produce the battery.

Graphene Nanochem announced that it received the first two commercial orders for its high-value graphene-enhanced PlatQuartZ oilfield material. The first order is a small one (380 drums), while the second is six times larger (2,640 drums) and valued at $5.6 million.

NanoChem also announced that it facing new delays on their graphene-enhanced PlatDrill drilling fluid - due to regulatory and testing constraints. This means that the company is likely to miss market expectations for 2015 (in fact results for 2015 are lkeyl to be "significantly" below current market expectations).

In November 2013, Graphene Nanochem signed an agreement with Malaysia's Scomi Oiltools, a global supplier of drilling fluid services, to exclusively market a range of formulated graphene-enhanced PlatDrill series to the oilfield chemicals market.

Now Graphene Nanochem signed a licensing and offtake agreement for the entire production of PlatDrill under the Scomi-Platinum joint venture. The two companies will build a 45,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) production facility: 30,000 tpa of Platdrill material and 15,000 of specialty chemicals. The fab will also produce graphene nanomaterial (will increase NanoChem's capacity from 30 tonnes per year to 50). Scomi Oiltools agreed to buy the whole production of PlatDrill over five years (estimated at 135,000 tonnes) with an option to renew for another 5 years.

In December 2013, Graphene Nanochem, in cooperation with the National Innovation Agency of Malaysia agreed to launch Malaysia's national graphene hub, with hopes that Malaysia will turn into a global graphene innovation hub. Now the Malaysian government has launched the National Graphene Action Plan (NGAP) 2020, a "strategic and calculated venture on graphene".

The NGAP 2020 outlined five potential industries that could best benefit from graphene — rubber additives, Li-ion battery anode/ultra-capacitors, conductive inks, nanofluids and plastic additives. The government says that according to their studies, by 2020 Malaysia could capture a $20 million nanofluids market, a $90 million plastic market and a $4.4 billion rubber market.