Made in Italy graphene lands in the United States to recover oil lost during extraction and industrial processes.
The Grafysorber technology of Directa Plus, a leading Italian company in the production of graphene-based products, has been authorized by the EPA, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, for use in all hydrocarbon recovery processes. The news comes in a context, that of the energy crisis and the high price of fuels, in which the possibility of recovering oil lost in industrial processes can also represent a significant economic and environmental value.
Directa Plus is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of graphene-based products for the consumer and industrial markets with 72 patents. Founded and led by the CEO Giulio Cesareo, based in Lomazzo (Como) and listed in London, the company employs around 200 people (65 in Italy, the rest in Romania) and has a turnover of 7 million euros. Its graphene-based products are chemical-free, sustainably manufactured and certified as safe for users. Graphene Plus has applications in five different sectors: smart textiles, environmental solutions, elastomers, composite materials, new generation batteries (lithium-sulfur). It also has a selective absorbing capacity with respect to the hydrocarbons present in the water and allows its subsequent recovery, not only in the case of accidental spills into the sea, but also within industrial processes.
After years of experimentation Grafysorber has reached the marketing stage and there are the first results on an industrial scale in Romania where Directa Plus collaborates with the leading operator in the sector in the country. In the course of 2021, 7 thousand tons of oil were recovered, equivalent to 124,600 barrels, which at the prices of the last few days and at the current exchange rate are worth almost 12 million euros.
The EPA decision opens up the US market where annual oil consumption is 7.2 billion barrels. Even in Italy, where the annual consumption of oil is 475 million barrels, the possibility of recovering the oil dispersed in production processes represents an opportunity for savings from an economic point of view and protection for the environment.
“The recovery of hydrocarbons represents an opportunity both from an economic and environmental point of view”, explains Cesareo. The potential of graphene gives a competitive advantage to many of the companies operating in the strategic sectors of Italy, not just Oil & Gas. Graphene, in fact, has fire retardant properties, which represent an advantage in the production of batteries and paints, it has the ability to disperse heat, a feature that finds application in sports and professional clothing, think of the uniforms of firefighters or pilots. of the air force. It also has antibacterial and antiviral capabilities that have found application in the masks marketed during the Covid pandemic.