Graphene-XT develops graphene-enhanced lubricating oil additive for engines

Researchers at Graphene-XT have developed a new graphene-based lubricating oil additive for diesel and petrol engines in cars or motorcycles.

By introducing graphene into a lubricating oil, Graphene-XT found that both its performance and stability improved, resulting in more compression and less wear and tear in the engine parts of both cars and motorcycles.

The addition of graphene improves the oil’s tribological properties, making it more suitable for high-pressure, high-stress environments, explained Simone Ligi, CEO of Graphene-XT. But the benefits of graphene do not stop there. Graphene has good heat transfer properties, essential to make lubricants safer at higher temperatures. All of these effects combined together reduce engine noise and fuel consumption.

To further prove the effectiveness of their graphene-based lubricant, researchers at Graphene-XT added their graphene lube to a motocross engine. A biker then took the motorcycle for a spin on a motocross circuit and reported back. His feedback was the same as that from the lab, graphene-enhanced oil produced less noise and better performance.

The motocross engine is under a lot of stress, continued Ligi. It needs a lot of maintenance and sometimes requires an oil change as frequently as every three hours. This was a hard test for graphene, but it clearly shows our product works. The additive is under evaluation for different users, such as cars and light trucks, for long-term performance evaluation.

It is great to see that with the support of the Graphene Flagship, the new product’s development has been accelerated up to the point of product release, added Alex Jouvray, Graphene Flagship Work Package Leader for Production. This is the aim of the Production Work Package. The team at Graphene-XT has done an excellent job in identifying a gap in the market and developing a new product to meet this market.

Emanuele Crescini, Financial Advisor for Graphene-XT, also works on the oil and says that the commercial product will be released in the first half of 2021 adding that their team are hard working on the launch of their product. Hopefully, this will be our first product of many, he says.