Strategic Energy Resources

Ionic Industries, a spin-off of minerals explorer Strategic Energy Resources, cooperated with Monash University to develop extremely thin graphene-based supercapacitors, able to store large amounts of energy. According to Ionic, the first battery prototype should be available within six months and more sophisticated prototypes in three to five years.

The supercapacitors are tiny - smaller than the diameter of human hair, actually. They were created following two years of rigorous experiments, using an ion beam to etch the supercapacitors on to wafers made of graphene. They are said to be able to be fully recharged in minutes and last longer than present battery technologies.

Australia's Strategic Energy Resources entered into an exclusive worldwide licence to commercialize graphene-oxide membrane technology developed by Monash University.

SER's wholly-owned subsidiary Ionic Industries has full rights to exploit and commercialize the IP, including by direct sale or by sublicensing, within the field of energy storage and capacitor materials, and devices from indigenous natural graphite. Ionic will pay a royalty to Monash if the commercialization is successful.

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.

Ionic Industries, a subsidiary of Strategic Energy Resources, announced the completion of an independent marketing report on the potential of its graphene-based SuperSand product. This product is meant to be a potential substitute for activated carbon and can offer equal or better performance at a lower (or at least comparable) cost.

The report yielded positive findings that support the company's decision to make SuperSand the first of its products to be produced by its planned graphene oxide manufacturing pilot plant, for which an engineering study is almost complete (with commencement of construction of the pilot plant planned for later in 2015).

Ionic Industries, formerly known as Grafitech, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Australian Strategic Energy Resources. Ionic Industries is working together with Monash University to develop a way to sustainably manufacture graphene from natural graphite and graphene-based nanofiltration membranes.

The company has announced the purchase of a membrane casting facility for its graphene membrane technology, with an intention to develop scalable graphene membranes with multiple uses for mining and food processing.

Strategic Energy Resources (SER) signed a jointly-funded research agreement with Monash Universtiy to develop a bench-scale facility for graphene production. Monash and Graphitech (SER's wholly owned subsidiary) will fund this project, with Monash contributing $100,000.

SER expects that they will start the setup in November 2014, and it will take about 3 months to fully set-up and test it. Graphitech will retain ownership of the facility, with Monash responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the facility. Initial batches of graphene production will be in the range of 1 kilogram to 2 kilogram per day.

Last month Australia's Strategic Energy Resources (SER) announced that it will focus on graphene-related investments, disclosing that it has an alliance with Monash University and an exclusive license agreement on the energy storage graphene technologies.

Today it was announced that SER and Monash University have been awarded a second ARC Linkage Grant for graphene-based research. The three-year project will cost $375,000 (probably AUD, which translates to $350,000 USD). The ARC will fund $255,000 and the rest will be funded by SER. The project (titled Green Manufacturing of Graphene from Indigenous Natural Graphite and Graphene-based Nanofiltration Membranes) aims to establish a green chemical route for transforming graphites fines into graphene.

Australia's Strategic Energy Resources (SER) announced that the company resolved to focus on graphene-related investments. SER already have an alliance with Monash University and an exclusive license agreement with the University on the energy storage graphene technologies. Using Monash's technology, SER formed a new company called Graphitech to handle all commercial and IP activities resulting from Monash's technology.

SER also holds a stage in Valence Industries, a public Australian Graphite company that is also involved with graphene research, together with the University of Adelaide.