Ionic Industries, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian Strategic Energy Resources, has released the results of an engineering scoping study for its planned pilot plant, to compliment the previously released marketing study for SuperSand. The studies confirm the economic viability of the planned pilot scale graphene oxide and SuperSand facility.
Ionic has commissioned Minnovo Pty Ltd, an independent engineering group, to examine the feasibility of a pilot plant to produce graphene oxide (GO) and multiple SuperSand products using Ionic’s technology. Ionic will concentrate on two areas where its research and development teams have already made significant advances: graphene based high performance energy storage devices, and filtration in various industries for environmental pollutant decontamination and resource extraction.
The pilot plant is planned to be capable of producing five kilograms a day of graphene oxide, which can be further processed into up to 2.5 tonnes a week of SuperSand. Preliminary production costs of SuperSand is $2054 per tonne, of which the graphene oxide cost is $1446. The pilot plant is estimated to take 26 weeks to build with a CAPEX of $1.275 million. The site for the pilot plant is under review, with options being explored in both Victoria and South Australia.