- World’s largest graphene application successfully weathers 1st year of commercial sea trials on hull of 33,000 tonne cargo ship
- Talga’s Graphene-additive Talcoat® product proves tough in 15 months of highly corrosive, real world conditions using environmentally friendly and sustainable Swedish graphite feedstock
- Talcoat® enhanced coatings offer potential to inhibit corrosion without use of current metals and chemicals toxic to the environment – sea trials are ongoing
Battery anode and graphene company Talga Group Ltd (“Talga” or “the Company”) (ASX:TLG) is pleased to provide an update on the commercial scale trials of its Talcoat® graphene additive for marine coatings.
The Talcoat®-enhanced primer coating was first applied to a 33,000t container ship late in 2019 (ASX:TLG 4 Nov 2019) in the world’s largest single application of graphene. The commercial scale trial was later extended to include a second similar sized container ship (ASX:TLG 17 Dec 2019). On the first ship, Robin 1 (previously Algarrobo), visual inspection over 15 months service indicates the Talcoat® product is matching or exceeding commercial standard.
Commenting on the milestone, Talga Managing Director Mr Mark Thompson said: “We are very pleased to see this large scale demonstration of Talga’s graphene successfully working in the tough conditions of commercial shipping. Additionally, as we can now produce our graphene as a by-product of our battery anode manufacturing process, we are demonstrating a global leading low- cost and scalable graphene additive supply for large volume industrial products.”
Due to travel and access restrictions, including change in ownership of the two cargo ships, detailed physical testing of Robin 1 and review of the second ship coating is yet to be completed. Further testing is expected to commence when access is reinstated, meanwhile the sea trials of Talga’s graphene coating on both ships continue during the ships’ active service.
Next Steps
The positive results and growing market interest has encouraged Talga to extend the range of its graphene Talcoat® products, which focus on replacing toxic chemicals and metals1 with more environmentally friendly carbon-based graphene.
Talcoat® products now in various stages of development include large volume applications in anti- foul marine coatings, barrier coatings for packaging, anti-bacterial coatings for metals and plastics, and anti-corrosion coatings for large volume metal parts/fasteners. Updates across completed work in these application areas are to follow as development progresses.
