Graphene production

UK-based Levidian is considering using flare gas from a UAE natural gas firm’s field operations to produce graphene and hydrogen. Dana Gas has revealed it had made an undisclosed investment into the British tech firm and had been working to deploy its LOOP technology across its field operations.

The LOOP technology uses electromagnetic waves to ionize methane into plasma to separate hydrogen and carbon in the form of graphene. It turns out that since September, the two companies have been finalizing the engineering and design of a pilot plant that could be deployed into Dana Gas’ operations later this year.

ADNOC Gas and Baker Hughes have installed Levidian’s LOOP technology at the Habshan Gas Processing Plant. The Gulf operator claims it marks the first-ever deployment of the technology at an operational gas processing site.

Carbon will be captured from methane, the main constituent of natural gas, and transformed into graphene, as part of a pilot trial. The LOOP unit is capable of producing more than 1 tonne per annum (tpa) of graphene and 1 tpa of hydrogen, making it a dual-purpose innovation aligned with global energy transition goals. Future industrial-scale installations are expected to deliver 15 tpa.

The Advanced Carbons Company (TACC), a wholly owned subsidiary of HEG, has entered into a Non-Binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ceylon Graphene Technologies (CGT) with regard to advancing graphene technology and unlocking its vast potential for diverse applications.

CGT, a LOLC company based in Sri Lanka, is a global expert in graphene production. Leveraging Sri Lanka's premium vein graphite, renowned for its purity and backed by its expertise in material science, CGT aims to be at the forefront of delivering innovative and high-quality graphene products. TACC, part of the LNJ Bhilwara Group, is known for its expertise in synthetic graphite and commitment to sustainable, green technologies. 

Researchers from Khalifa University of Science and Technology have demonstrated the production of few-layered graphene sheets with high lateral sizes (4–5 μm) through a state-of-the-art solar irradiation-driven liquid-phase exfoliation technique.

In this method, the sunlight is directly used on the intercalated graphite flakes for just 0.5 s to achieve the graphite expansion. Using focused sunlight makes this solar expansion technique sustainable with zero energy demand (0 J) - the total energy spent to produce 1 kg of graphene through this technique is only around 2.135 MJ. 

Israeli-based 2D Generation (2DG), which specializes in graphene-based solutions for semiconductors, has been acquired by ASX-listed Adisyn (ASX:AI1), a provider of tech services for SMEs in the Australian defense sector that has expanded its focus to the semiconductor industry through this acquisition.

Adisyn is also one of the founders of Connecting Chips European Union Joint Undertaking, a collaboration that includes industry leaders like NVIDIA, Valeo, and Applied Materials. This acquisition not only brings Adisyn cutting-edge technology, but potentially opens the door for the company to enter the semiconductor space.

Malaysia-headquartered Graphjet Technology, developer of technologies to produce graphite and graphene from agricultural waste, has announces it is starting the 'world’s largest commercial-scale green graphite facility outside China'.

The more than 8,300-sq.-metre plant in Kuala Lumpur has the capacity to recycle up to 9,000 tonnes of palm kernel shells annually for as much as 3,000 tonnes of battery-grade graphite per year, Graphjet said in a recent statement. The output can make enough batteries for 40,000 electric vehicles a year.  

UK-based climate technology company, Levidian, and Kanoo Energy, a part of Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and The Kanoo Group in the UAE, have announced a new partnership to drive forward decarbonization projects across the Middle East.

The collaboration agreement will see the two companies work together to jointly explore and execute projects in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman. Kanoo will also work as Levidian’s dedicated Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) partner within the region.

Inovartic Investment Lanka, a joint venture between Sri Lanka’s Apex Asia Holdings and UAE’s Inovartic Investment, has announced the launch of the Abu Dhabi University Graphene Center – an advanced facility dedicated to pioneering research in graphene technology.

This center was inaugurated at Abu Dhabi University to drive scientific progress and international collaborations in nanotechnology, aligning with the UAE’s “Make It in the UAE” initiative. This ambitious project brings together Inovartic Investment, Abu Dhabi University, and the Sri Lanka Institute of Nano Technology (SLINTEC) to explore graphene applications across sectors, including electronics, medical devices, EV batteries, water treatment, agriculture, materials science, and energy.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is offering Italian materials manufacturer BeDimensional €20 million (almost USD$22 million) in venture debt financing to expand production of Few-Layer Graphene (FLG) and Few-Layer Hexagonal Boron Nitride (FLhBN or FLB).  

EIB Vice-President Gelsomina Vigliotti and BeDimensional Chief Executive Officer Vittorio Pellegrini announced the financing accord at the inauguration of the company's plant in Genoa. BeDimensional plans to build a second plant in Italy to scale-up production of FLG and FLB by 2027.

A research team from the University of Córdoba (UCO) has developed a new prototype that could lead opens the door to the large-scale production of graphene. This new method, which has already been registered for evaluation as a patent and is based on a previous patent by the same team, increases the production of graphene by more than 22%, with the process maintaining the high quality that characterizes graphene synthesized with this technology.

The work is based on plasma technology, a partially ionized gas often referred to as the fourth state of matter. One of its great advantages, highlighted the study's lead author, Francisco Javier Morales, is that "it is a highly energetic medium that is capable of breaking down organic molecules very easily." Specifically, the team used this plasma torch to break down ethanol and rearrange the molecule's carbon atoms, resulting in the creation of graphene.