Thunder Bay, ZEN Graphene Solutions Ltd. (“ZEN” or the “Company”) (TSXV:ZEN) have announces that the company has signed an initial agreement to in-license certain intellectual properties from a Canadian University that when combined with ZEN’s Albany Graphite, produces low cost, environmentally friendly graphene. The production process rapidly exfoliates Albany Graphite into few layer graphene (FLG, 2-5 layers) with a conversion efficiency of over 90%. Previous work has demonstrated that the unique Albany Graphite was converted to graphene far more efficiently when compared to flake or metamorphic graphite. This advantage was confirmed by recent testing using this new process.
“The challenge in the emerging graphene industry has been to produce consistent FLG, available in industrial quantities at prices that permit industrial adoption,” commented Dr. Francis Dubé. “We believe that with this exciting new process applied to our unique Albany Graphite product, ZEN Graphene Solutions possesses all the components to solve this challenge within a single vertically integrated company.
The company has collected 110 tonnes of graphite-mineralized material with an estimated average grade of 6% graphitic carbon during the 2019 bulk sample program (see March 22, 2019 news release). Once this material has been purified into approximatively 99.8% graphite, this exfoliation process and others, will be used to convert the Albany Graphite into graphene and graphene oxide. The Company has commenced searching for an industrial location that will house a pilot production centre, a research and development lab as well as office space. The graphene produced by the pilot production centre will be offered for sale as permitted by the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.
