Energy storage - Page 12

China-based Knano Graphene Technology launched an ambitious project to construct a large-scale graphene production plant. We talked to the company's marketing chief to learn more about this interesting project.

Knano aims to finish construction by the end of 2016, and to start shipping products to customers in 2017. The new plant will mostly produce graphene-enhanced pastes, used for coatings and as Li-Ion battery anode materials. Knano says it already has customers that approved these products produced at the company's current production lines.

Versarien has announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) to collaborate on the production of power storage devices such as batteries and supercapacitors using Versarien’s graphene nano platelets. Working with the SME team and battery specialists, Versarien will have access to WMG’s expertise and world leading facilities in the Energy Innovation Centre.

WMG aims to improve the competitiveness of organizations through the application of value adding innovation, new technologies and skills deployment, bringing academic rigor to industrial and organizational practice. WMG bridges the gap between academia and industry, enabling the development of innovative products.

A $300,000 USD grant (nearly Rs 2 crore) has been secured for a 3-year project proposed by Kumaun University in Nainital, to synthesize graphene from plastic waste for use in energy and biomedical applications.

The project will use a specially designed multipurpose incinerator (furnace) to synthesize graphene from plastic waste and also for conversion and collection of the fuel from plastic waste for automobile and other industrial applications. Waste material, garbage, and plastic will be collected for the project from Nainital and adjoining areas.

The Advanced Graphene, Nanomaterials & Nanotechnology Research Center (MackGraphe) was recently unveiled at Mackenzie Presbyterian University (UPM) in São Paulo, Brazil. Built with support from FAPESP, the Mackenzie Presbyterian Institute and the National Council for Scientific & Technological Development (CNPq), MackGraphe has received an investment of more than R$100 million (over $28 million) and is the first center of its kind in Latin America.

MackGraphe includes nine stories and more than 4,000 square meters of floor area. It will aim to explore the properties of graphene and other two-dimensional (2D) materials with a view toward industrial applications. MackGraphe’s state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment are staffed by a team of researchers who specialize in producing and characterizing graphene for industrial applications.

Garmor, a graphene technology provider and developer of advanced customer-driven applications, has developed graphene-based composites ideal for high-volume electronic and energy storage applications. By leveraging inexpensive manufacturing methods to produce few-layer graphene oxide (GO) along with innovative composite compression molding processes, Garmor produced compression-moldable GO-composites that can be shaped and stamped into almost any form factor. Garmor is currently establishing strategic business relationships to deploy this technological advancement in applications focused on energy production and storage.

These composites exhibit nearly isotropic electrical conductivity exceeding 1,000 S/cm delivering a unique, omnidirectional conductive substrate. Equally impressive is that these GO-enhanced materials include a polymeric resin that is inherently chemically resistant and allows for increased lifetime even in harsh operating environments.

Researchers at Brown University have demonstrated that graphene, wrinkled and crumpled in a multi-step process, becomes significantly better at repelling water - a property that could be useful in making self-cleaning surfaces. Crumpled graphene also has enhanced electrochemical properties, which could make it more useful as electrodes in batteries and fuel cells.

The researchers aimed to build relatively complex architectures incorporating both wrinkles and crumples. To do that, the researchers deposited layers of graphene oxide onto shrink films -polymer membranes that shrink when heated. As the films shrink, the graphene on top is compressed, causing it to wrinkle and crumple. To see what kind of structures they could create, the researchers compressed same graphene sheets multiple times. After the first shrink, the film was dissolved away, and the graphene was placed in a new film to be shrunk again.

IDTechEx Research recently released a report that projects that the graphene market will grow to $220 million in 2026, a 10% growth from their former report that predicted that the graphene market will reach nearly $200 million by 2026. This forecast is at the material level and does not count the value of graphene-enabled products.

According to IDTechEx, a continual decline in average sales prices will accompany the revenue growth, meaning that volume sales will reach nearly 3.8 k tonnes per year in 2026. Despite this, IDTechEx forecasts suggest that the industry will remain in a state of over-capacity until 2021 beyond which time new capacity will need to be installed. Furthermore, IDTechEx Research forecasts that nearly 90% of the market value will go to graphene platelets (vs. sheets) in 2026.

A new market report by Allied Market Research projects that the global sales of graphene would reach $151.4 million by 2021, and that the graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) segment will account for about two-thirds of the overall market revenue by that year. The energy storage application segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 93.2% during the analysis period.

AMR foresees that heavy investment to improve production capacity and focus on strengthening R&D activities would lead to the development of novel and innovative products. Monolayer and bilayer graphene would emerge as lucrative segments, registering a CAGR of 41.5% during 2014 and 2021. The growth of this segment is attributed to its potential applications in electronics, energy storage, 3D printing, and other industries.

Researchers have reported a graphene-based material with special electric properties, which might enable the production of better energy storage devices. The material follows the predictions of physicists from the University of Luxembourg that three years ago had theoretically predicted the unusual characteristics of a particular composite material. These calculations could now finally be confirmed by experiment in cooperation with the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal in Bordeaux, France, and resulted in the discovery of a so-called high-k-material, which might enable the production of better energy storage devices the basis for smaller, faster and more efficient electronics.

Earlier calculations indicated disappointing results - certain compound materials made of polymers and flaky graphene, as opposed to those made of polymers and carbon nanotubes, did not increase the conductivity of the material to the degree that was generally expected until then. These were bad news that clouded graphene's perceived future in creating composites with increased conductivity.