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.
The new plant's total annual capacity will be 2,200 tons:
- 1,000 tons of graphene paste for Li-Ion batteries
- 1,000 tons of graphene paste for coating applications
- 100 tons of graphene nanoplatelets
- 50 tons of graphene plastic masterbatch
- 50 tons of graphene powder
The graphene paste uses about 5% graphene, which means that total annual capacity will be around 250 tons/year of actual graphene. If this plans goes through, KNano's plant will be the world's largest graphene plant (or the second largest, if China's Ningo Morsh 300 ton/year graphene plant is operational at full capacity, it is not clear).
It is very interesting to hear that Knano already lined-up customers for battery and coating applications. Batteries are one of the most interesting graphene applications in the near future. Check out our own Graphene Batteries Market Report to learn more about this market.
Knano's current graphene flake plant is operational, and can produce a few dozens tons per year. The company holds more than 40 patents, and is a public company that trades in China's OTC stock exchange (NEEQ:836410).