Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd (TSX-V:GMG, OTCQX:GMGMF) CEO Craig Nicol spoke with Proactive about the company’s latest milestones, including securing a 20-year Australian patent for its THERMAL-XR ENHANCE coating.
Nicol said the patent strengthens the company’s long-term competitive position in a market estimated at more than $20 billion, noting its benefits for heat exchangers in boosting heat transfer while resisting corrosion.
On financing, Nicol outlined how the C$6.9 million recently raised will support stock building and product launches, positioning the company for stronger revenues.
He also provided an update on the aluminum-ion battery project with the University of Queensland, now at battery technology readiness level four.
Nicol also discussed the company’s approach to partnerships and supply chain development, referencing its work with Rio Tinto and its plans to build revenues through both large-scale collaborations and global distributor networks.
Proactive: I'm joined by Graphene Manufacturing Group managing director and CEO Craig Nicol. Craig very good to speak with you again. You've just secured a 20-year Australian patent for THERMAL-XR ENHANCE. How does this strengthen GMG's long term competitive position?
Craig Nicol: So basically, the patent enables us to kind of lock away this area obviously in Australia, but we expect it to flow through the rest of the world as we progress our patents through. In this graphene coating and heat exchanges, which we believe is a very large market (over the $20 billion sales opportunity) and the patent I guess there is specifically around using a graphene thin coating for heat exchanger, improve heat transfer, whilst also resisting corrosion as well. So, the 20-year patent is, I think, the creme de la creme, and we're very happy to get it.
Your case studies show double digit efficiency gains and cooling systems. How scalable are these results across industries like airports, data centers and also industrial plants?
These results, which we announced just two days ago, are very interesting. We've been working on the condenser side of the air conditioner, which is on the outside. These results were on the inside of the air conditioner, which means they are applicable on all types of air conditioners around the world, whether they're water, chilled or air chilled, or however they might operate on the outside. This is on the inside, and we are just reducing the pressure it takes to move the air through. So, they're extremely scalable. This was on a very large unit, but you can see this operate in many different areas of air conditioning, refrigeration, data centers and many other areas where you could see massive amount of air flow and reducing that by using a coating to get more airflow through, 6%–7% increase on just the coating alone and then another 6% or so on washing and drying, is a massive increase for these applications.
You recently raised C$6.9 million through an offering. How will these funds be allocated between energy savings batteries and also scaling graphene production?
They've focused generally on increasing our stock levels to be able to launch products, our small pack products, which will be coming in and announcing shortly, that will enable us to start distributing globally. So really, this is about building stock. So, we could look to sell it and obviously generate, you know, what we're hoping to do is push into a significant revenue this year coming.
Can you give us an update on your aluminum ion battery project with the University of Queensland. When might investors see commercial progress?
We've been working on this now for four years. Overall, we've been working on graphene for eight years. So, it's in what we call battery technology readiness level four, which is the electrical chemical optimization of this completely new technology, which is very fast charging, 60 times faster charging, similar economic density levels of lithium ion.
That means it goes just as far, but it's really fast charging. That is in later stages of electrochemistry optimization. The batteries never looked as good as we've ever had it before. It's very, very exciting. We're doing our weekly sprints. We're going up to 20 cells for every chemical's scientific experiment to get the density data, the real dense data that we need to optimize this. We are working with one of the best battery innovation centers in the country, in the world of Indiana, the BIC Indiana. And they're able to help us scale even much further. We expect to scale with them all the way through this year and through next year, provide cells out to people who will be looking at testing this. And then we're looking to do a large commercial production in 2027.
Finally, can you tell us how you're approaching partnerships and supply chain development to move from pilot projects to consistent revenue growth?
There are two phases to this. One is the very large companies that we've been working with some time, and we've been talking about them. Obviously, they run under NDA. We are working with Rio Tinto publicly, definitely with the battery. And they're obviously looking at our energy saving products as well. Because obviously that's something that they're focused on as a company. So, the focus there is to work with these big guys, to work out how we could help them move their energy emissions in big material ways. They're obviously very large projects to get these materials into their operations. But at the same time, we're going to be launching these distribution, palletized products that enable distributors anywhere in the world to pick them up and distribute them and bring them into a more of a fast-moving consumer goods arrangement. So, we build up our revenue through a blend of those two. And then of course, as the battery comes on, that revenue can come through there as well. Thus, it will be a blend of revenues across our products and across different types of customers. We see that from our learning in working in large oil and gas company product manufacturing companies. That's the best way to have a really good blend of revenues and mixtures. So, the risk is not all sitting on one particular customer. And that's what we are trying. And we should come out with some news on that shortly.