Tag Archives: Grafysorber

Directa Plus unleashes graphene-based mobile decontamination units

I’ve been covering Directa Plus stories for a little over a year now (my Dec. 17, 2014 posting titled: Water purification, Italy, Romania, and graphene and my May 25, 2015 posting titled: A GEnIuS approach to oil spill remediation at 18th European Forum on Eco-innovation. The product that most interests me is the graphene-based environmental decontamination unit, Grafysorber. Happily it is now being offered commercially according to a Dec. 18, 2015 Directa Plus press release found on Business Wire (and a PDF news release, you will need to download, can be found on the company’s website here),

Directa Plus (“Directa or “the Company”), one of the largest producers and suppliers of graphene for use in consumer and industrial products, is pleased to announce the global commercial launch of the Grafysorber™ Decontamination Unit, the world’s first graphene-based system for tackling environmental emergencies such as oil spills. The launch follows successful industrial remediation activities conducted in Italy and Romania.

The Company is also pleased to announce that Biocart S.r.l., an Italian company engaged in the research, development and industrialisation of next-generation materials and solutions for the mitigation of natural disasters and environmental remediation, has purchased the first three mobile units.

Giulio Cesareo, Chief Executive Officer of Directa, said: “We are pleased to launch the Grafysorber™ Decontamination Unit that will enable a prompt and effective response to a potential catastrophe such as an oil spill – and so help avoid a major environmental disaster. Due to the mobile nature of the unit, it can be stored nearer to an area where an event may occur, thereby reducing the time and costs ordinarily associated with the transportation of a solution.”

The Grafysorber™ Decontamination Unit contains a proprietary and patented plasma machine that is able to produce on site all the Grafysorber™ needed to clean up water contaminated with the harmful hydrocarbons contained in oil spills. As it is a mobile unit, it can be quickly deployed to the site of the spill.

During 2015, two industrial remediation activities have been carried out with GrafysorberTM, treating approximately 35,000m3 of water contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. Less than 5g/m3 of GrafysorberTM were able to remove the hydrocarbon contaminants, reducing the concentration from 550mg/l to a safe level of approximately 0.5mg/l, with a significant cost reduction of 50-60% compared with traditional technologies.

Grafysorber™ is a sustainable product as it enables the recovery and recycling of the adsorbed oils; it is recyclable; and it does not contain any toxic substances. The ability to produce the graphene on site and in the right quantity renders it a very cost-effective solution compared with conventional solutions. Grafysorber™ has received approval from the Ministry of Environment in Italy and in Romania.

“This is an important step for Directa Plus as we unveil another significant application for graphene-based solutions. It has been achieved due to our technical strength and proprietary process for producing graphene in various forms in a cost effective manner. The ability of the Grafysorber™ Decontamination Unit to produce all the graphene necessary to purify the contaminated water directly at the site of use can be easily replicated and applied to other emergency scenarios. The initial demand that we have already received for this product provides further evidence that graphene has left the laboratory and is ready for mass adoption,” added Giulio Cesareo.

I look forward to hearing more about this product as it is put into use.

A GEnIuS approach to oil spill remediation at 18th European Forum on Eco-innovation

In light of recent local events (an oil spill in Vancouver’s [Canada] English Bay, a popular local beach [more details in my April 16, 2015 post]), it seems appropriate to mention an* environmentally friendly solution to mopping up oil spills (oil spill remediation). A May 21, 2015 news item on Azonano features a presentation on the topic at hand (Note: A link has been removed),

Directa Plus at 18th European Forum on Eco-innovation to present GEnIuS, the innovative project that leads to the creation of a graphene-based product able to remove hydrocarbons from polluted water and soil.

The Forum untitled “Boosting competitiveness and innovation” is being held by the European Commission on 20th and 21st of May in Barcelona. The main purpose of this event is presenting the last developments in the eco-innovation field: an important moment where emerging and cutting-edge innovators will get in contact with new promising solutions under political, financial and technological point of view.

Directa Plus research has driven to the creation of an ecologic, innovative and highly effective oil-adsorbent, characterized by unique performances in oil adsorbency, and at the same time absence of toxicity and flammability, and the possibility to recover oil.

The creation of this graphene-based oil-adsorbent product, commercialized as Grafysorber, has been promoted by GEnIuS project and already approved by the Italian Ministry of Enviroment to be used in occasion of oil spills clean-up activities.

Giulio Cesareo, Directa Plus President and CEO, commented:

“Grafysorber embodies the nano-carbon paradox -in fact, with a nano-carbon material we are able to cut down part of damages caused by hydrocarbons, derived from carbon itself.

“Moreover, our product, once exhausted after depuration of water, finishes positively its life cycle inside the asphalt and bitumen, introducing new properties as thermal conductivity and mechanical reinforcement. I believe that every company is obliged to work following a sustainable approach to guarantee a balanced use of resources and their reuse, where possible.”

I have mentioned a Romanian project employing Directa Plus’s solution, Grafysorber in a December 30, 2014 post. At the time, the product name was called Graphene Plus and Grafysorber was a constituent of the product.

You can find more information about Graphene Eco Innovative Sorbent (GENIUS) here and about Directa Plus here. The company is located in Italy.

One final bit about oil spills and remediation, the Deepwater Horizon/Gulf/BP oil spill has spawned, amongst many others, a paper from the University of Georgia (US) noting that we don’t know that much about the dispersants used to clean up, from a May 14, 2015 University of Georgia news release on EurekAlert,

New commentary in Nature Reviews Microbiology by Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia and her colleagues argues for further in-depth assessments of the impacts of dispersants on microorganisms to guide their use in response to future oil spills.

Chemical dispersants are widely used in emergency responses to oil spills in marine environments as a means of stimulating microbial degradation of oil. After the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010, dispersants were applied to the sea surface and deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the latter of which was unprecedented. Dispersants were used as a first line of defense even though little is known about how they affect microbial communities or the biodegradation activities they are intended to spur.

The researchers document historical context for the use of dispersants, their approval by the Environmental Protection Agency and the uncertainty about whether they stimulate or in fact inhibit the microbial degradation of oil in marine ecosystems.

One challenge of testing the toxicity from the use of dispersants on the broader ecosystem is the complex microbial communities of the different habitats represented in a large marine environment, such as the Gulf of Mexico. Development of model microbial communities and type species that reflect the composition of surface water, deep water, deep-sea sediments, beach sediments and marsh sediments is needed to evaluate the toxicity effects of dispersants.

“The bottom line is that we do not truly understand the full range of impacts that dispersants have on microbial communities, and we must have this knowledge in hand before the next marine oil spill occurs to support the decision-making process by the response community,” Joye said.

I hope the Canadians who are overseeing our waterways are taking note.

*’a’ changed to ‘an’ for grammatical correctness on Dec. 18, 2015.