Tag Archives: NanEx

Nanex Canada (?) opens office in United States

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Earlier this month in a Sept. 5, 2014 posting I noted that a Belgian company was opening a Canadian subsidiary in Montréal, Québec, called Nanex Canada. Not unexpectedly, the company has now announced a new office in the US. From a Sept. 23, 2014 Nanex Canada news release on Digital Journal,

Nanex Canada appoints Patrick Tuttle, of Havre de Grace, Maryland as the new USA National Sales Director. Tuttle will be in charge of all operations for the USA marketing and distribution for the Nanex Super hydrophobic Water Repellent Nanotechnology products.

… Nanex Canada is proud to announce a new partnership with Patrick Tuttle to develop the market within the Unites States for Its new line of super hydrophobic products. “We feel this is a very strategic alliance with Mr. Tuttle and his international marketing staff,” said Boyd Soussana, National Marketing Director for the parent company, Nanex Canada.

The products Mr. Tuttle will be responsible for in developing a market for include:

1) Aqua Shield Marine

2) Aqua Shield Leather and Textile

3) Aqua Shield Exterior: Wood, Masonry, Concrete

4) Aqua Shield Sport: Skiing, Snowboarding, Clothing

5) Aqua Shield Clear: Home Glass and Windshield Coating

6) Dryve Shield: For all Auto Cleaning and Shine

Soussana went on to say “the tests we have done in Canada on high dollar vehicles and the feedback from the Marine industry have been excellent. We are hearing from boat owners that they are seeing instant results in cleaning and protection from the Aqua Shield Marine products from the teak, to the rails and the fiberglass as well”

Boyd Soussana told me they did a private test on some very high end vehicles and the owners were very impressed, according to him.

So what is a Super hydrophobic Water Repellent Nanotechnology Product and how does it work?

A superhydrophobic coating is a nanoscopic surface layer that repels water and also can reduce dirt and friction against the surface to achieve better fuel economies for the auto and maritime industries according to Wikipedia.

About Nanex Company

Nanex is a developer of commercialized nanotechnology solutions headquartered in Belgium operating in North America through its Canadian subsidiary Nanex Canada Incorporated. At the start of 2012 it launched its first product, an advanced super hydrophobic formula called Always Dry. By 2014 Nanex had distributors around the world from Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore, to England and Eastern Europe, and had expanded its products into three lines and several formulas.

Given the remarkably short time span between opening a Canadian subsidiary and opening an office in the US, it’s safe to assume that obtaining a toehold in the US market was Nanex’s true objective.

Canadian nano business news: international subsidiary (Nanex) opens in Québec and NanoStruck’s latest results on recovering silver from mine tailings

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The Canadian nano business sector is showing some signs of life. Following on my Sept. 3, 2014 posting about Nanotech Security Corp.’s plans to buy a subsidiary business, Fortress Optical Features, there’s an international subsidiary of Nanex (a Belgium-based business) planning to open in the province of Québec and NanoStruck (an Ontario-based company) has announced the results of its latest tests on cyanide-free recovery techniques.

In the order in which I stumbled across these items, I’m starting with the Nanex news item in a Sept. 3, 2014 posting on the Techvibes blog,

Nanex, a Belgian-based innovator and manufacturer of superhydrophobic nanotechnology products, announced last week the creation of its first international subsidiary.

Nanex Canada will be headquartered in Montreal.

For those unfamiliar with the term superhydrophobic, it means water repellent to a ‘super’ degree. For more information the properties of superhydrophobic coatings, the Techvibes post is hosting a video which demonstrates the coating’s properties (there’s a car which may never need washing again).

An Aug. 1, 2014 Nanex press release, which originated the news item, provides more details,

… Nanex Canada Incorporated will be starting operations on October 1st, 2014 and will be headquartered in Montreal, Quebec.

“Nanex’s expansion into Canada is a tremendous leap forward in our international operations, creating not only more efficient and direct channels into all of North America, but also providing access to a new top-notch intellectual pool for our R&D efforts,” Said Boyd Soussana, National Marketing Director at Nanex Canada. “We feel that Quebec and Canada have a great reputation as leaders in the field of advanced technologies, and we are proud to contribute to this scientific landscape.”

Upon launch, Nanex Canada Inc. will begin with retail and sales of its nanotechnology products, which have a wide range of consumer applications. Formal partnerships in B2B [business-to-business] further expanding these applications have been in place throughout Canada beginning in August of 2014. Through its Quebec laboratories Nanex Canada Inc. will also be pursuing R&D initiatives, in order to further develop safe and effective nano-polymers for consumer use, focusing entirely on ease of application and cost efficiency for the end consumer. In addition application of nano-coatings in green technologies will be a priority for North American R&D efforts.

Nanex Company currently manufactures three lines of products: Always Dry, Clean & Coat, and a self-cleaning coating for automotive bodies. These products contain proprietary nano-polymers that when sprayed upon a surface provide advanced abilities including super hydrophobic (extremely water-repellent), oleophobic (extremely oil repellent), and scratch resistance as well as self-cleaning properties.

 

The second piece of news is featured in a Sept. 5, 2014 news item on Azonano,

NanoStruck Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce positive results from test work carried out on silver mine tailings utilizing proprietary cyanide free recovery technologies that returned up to 87.6% of silver from samples grading 56 grams of silver per metric ton (g/t).

A Sept. 4, 2014 NanoStruck news release, which originated the news item, provides more details,

Three leach tests were conducted using the proprietary mixed acid leach process. Roasting was conducted on the sample for two of the leach tests, producing higher recoveries, although the un-roasted sample still produced a 71% recovery rate.

87.6% silver recoveries resulted from a 4 hour leach time at 95 degrees Celsius, with the standard feed grind size of D80 175 micron of roasted material.
84.3% recoveries resulted from a 4 hour leach at 95 degrees Celsius with the standard feed grind size of D80 175 micron with roasted material at a lower acid concentration.
71% recoveries resulted from a 4 hour leach at 95 degrees Celsius from received material, with the standard feed grind size of D80 175 micron with an altered acid mix concentration.

The average recovery for the roasted samples was 86% across the two leach tests performed using the proprietary process.

Bundeep Singh Rangar, Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board, said: “These results further underpin the effectiveness of our processing technology. With our patented process we are achieving excellent recoveries in not only silver tailings, but also gold tailings as well, both of which have vast global markets for us.”

The proprietary process combines a novel mixed acid leach with a solvent extraction stage, utilizing specific organic compounds. No cyanide is used in this environmentally friendly process. The flow sheet design is for a closed loop, sealed unit in which all chemicals are then recycled.

Previous test work undertaken on other gold mine tailings utilizing the proprietary process resulted in a maximum 96.1% recovery of gold. Previous test work undertaken on other silver tailings resulted in a maximum 86.4% recovery of silver.

The technical information contained in this news release has been verified and approved by Ernie Burga, a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, of the Canadian securities administrators.

Should you choose to read the news release in its entirety, you will find that no one is responsible for the information should anything turn out to be incorrect or just plain wrong but, like Nanotech Security Corp., (as I noted in my Sept. 4, 2014 posting), the company is very hopeful.

I have mentioned NanoStruck several times here:

March 14, 2014 posting

Feb. 19, 2014 posting

Feb. 10, 2014 posting

Dec. 27, 2013 posting

Summary of EHS studies on nanotechnology funded through Europe’s 7th Framework Programme

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I was a little shocked to see how many EHS (environment, health, and safety) projects focussed on nanotechnology that the European Union (EU) funded as part of its overarching science funding efforts, the 7th Framework Program, due to be superseded in the near future (2013)) by the Horizon 2020 program. The June 18, 2012 Nanowerk Spotlight article submitted by NanoTrust, Austrian Academy of Sciences provides the reasoning for the EU  effort (Note: I have removed footnotes.),

The Action Plan, presented by the EU Commission in 2004, envisioned integrating “the social dimension into a responsible technology development” and strengthening efforts related to “health, safety, environmental aspects and consumer protection“.

This encompassed (1) the systematic study of safety-relevant aspects at the earliest possible date, (2) integrating health- and environment-relevant aspect in research and development, (3) conducting targeted studies on toxicology and ecotoxicology and, finally, (4) adapting risk assessment approaches to nano-specific aspects in all phases of product life-cycles.

The primary goal was to improve the competitiveness of European industry. The draft presented in mid-2011 for the planned research priorities continues this strategic focus.

The EU Parliament had already discussed the Nano Action Plan developed by the Commission before the start of the current Framework Program. From the onset, the relevant parliamentary resolution called for an improved coordination with the Member States and more risk research, consideration of the precautionary principle and a deepened dialogue with citizens.

The EU Parliament clearly felt that the rules require urgent adaptations in order to adequately consider nano-risks: In the resolution of April 2009 the parliamentarians underlined the existence of a considerable “lack of information about the use and safety of nanomaterials that are already on the market”.

The overall scope of the projects on nanotechnology, materials and production (NMP) funded by the 7th RP is listed at about 3.475 mill. €. According to EU sources, about 102 mill. € were earmarked for safety aspects (nanosafety research).The comparison with the much more modest Nano-EHS-budget in the past clearly shows the change here (5th RP: about 2.5 mill. €, 6th RP 6 about 30 mill. €).

The publication from where this information was drawn is no.30 in the NanoTrust Dossier series. It was published in May 2012 (from pp. 2-6),

ENNSATOX

Title: Engineered Nanoparticle Impact on Aquatic Environments: Structure, Activity and Toxicology

Coordinator: Andrew Nelson,
Centre for Molecular Nanosciences (CMNS), School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, UK
Duration: July 2009 to July 2012
Project costs: 3,655 mill. €
EU funding: 2,816 mill. €
Homepage: www.ennsatox.eu

The goal of ENNSATOX is to investigate the environmental effects of various synthetic nanoparticles from the time of their release to their potential uptake by organisms, particularly in rivers and lakes. …

ENPRA

Title: Risk Assessment of Engineered Nanoparticles

Coordinator: Lang Tran,
Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburg, UK
Duration: July 2009 to July 2012
Project costs: 5,13 mill. €
EU funding: 3,7 mill. €
Homepage: www.enpra.eu

ENPRA is examining the impacts of selected and commercially used nanomaterials, whereby the different target organs (lungs, cardiovascular system, kidneys etc.) and different mechanisms of damage (see Nano Trust-Dossier 012en) are being determined. …

HINAMOX

Title: Health Impact of Engineered Metal and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Response, Bioimaging and Distribution at Cellular and Body Level

Coordinator: Sergio E. Moya,
Centro de Investigación Cooperativa en Biomateriales (Spanien)
Duration: October 2009 to October 2012
Project costs: 2.93 mill. €
EU funding: 2.3 mill. €
Homepage: www.hinamox.eu

HINAMOX deals with the impacts of several metal-oxide nanoparticles – TiO2, ZnO, Al2O3, CeO2 etc. – on human health and on biological systems. …

InLiveTox

Title: Intestinal, Liver and Endothelial Nanoparticle Toxicity – development and evaluation of a novel tool for high-throughput data generation

Coordinator: Martha Liley,
CSEM (Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique SA)
Duration: May 2009 to July 2012
Project costs: 3.42 mill. €
EU funding: 2.4 mill. €
Homepage: www.inlivetox.eu

In InLiveTox, an improved in-vitro model is being developed to describe the effects of nanoparticles taken up via food, especially effects on the gastrointestinal tract and the liver.  …

MARINA

Title: Managing Risks of Nanomaterials

Coordinator: Lang Tran,
IOM (Institute of Occupational Medicine) Edinburgh, UK
Duration: November 2011 to November 2015
Project costs: 12.48 Mio. €
EU funding: 9.0 mill. €
Homepage: www.marina-fp7.eu and http://www.iom-world.org

A total of almost 50 industrial companies (including BASF) and scientific facilities are combined in the very large joint project MARINA, coordinated by the Institute of Occupational Medicine of the University of Edinburgh; other organizations that are involved in employee protection and occupational safety are also participating (FIOH/Finland, IST/Switzerland, RIVM/The Netherlands). …

ModNanoTox

Title: Modelling nanoparticle toxicity: principles, methods, novel approaches Toxicology

Coordinator: Eugenia Valsami-Jones,
Natural History Museum, London, UK
Duration: November 2011 to November 2013
Project costs: 1.28 mill. €
EU funding: 1.0 mill. €
Homepage: (under construction) lib.bioinfo.pl/projects/view/32734

The goal of ModNanoTox is to develop welldocumented models on the long-term behavior of synthetic nanoparticles in organisms and in the environment. …

NanEx

Title: Development of Exposure Scenarios for Manufactured Nanomaterials

Coordinator: Martie van Tongeren,
Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh UK
Duration: December 2009 to November 2010
Project costs: 1.01 mill. €
EU funding: 0.95 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanex-project.eu, lib.bioinfo.pl/projects/view/12016

In NanEx, a catalog of realistic scenarios is being developed for potential impacts of synthetic nanoparticles at industrial workplaces, of various uses by consumers as well as of delayed releases into the environment. …

NANODEVICE

Title: Modelling Novel Concepts, Methods and Technologies for the Production of Portable, Easy-to-Use Devices for the Measurement and Analysis of Airborne Nanoparticles in Workplace Air

Coordinator: Kai Savolainen,
Finnish Institute for Occupational Health (FIOH), Finland
Duration: April 2009 to April 2013
Project costs: 12.28 mill. €
EU funding: 9.49 mill. €
Homepage: www.nano-device.eu

Due to the lack of robust and inexpensive instruments, the nanoparticle concentrations in the air at the workplace cannot be measured at the present time. NANODEVICE is devoted to studying innovative concepts and practicable methods for identifying synthetic nanomaterials, methods that can also be used at the workplace. …

NanoFATE

Title: Nanoparticle Fate Assessment and Toxicity in the Environment

Coordinator: Klaus Svendsen,
NERC (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology),
Wallingford, UK
Duration: April 2010 to April 2014
Project costs: 3.25 mill. €
EU funding: 2.50 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanofate.eu

NanoFATE is devoted to systematically deepening our knowledge about the behavior and the fate of synthetic nanoparticles that enter the environment. …

Nanogenotox

Title: Towards a method for detecting the potential genotoxicity of nanomaterials

Coordinator: Anses – French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety
Duration: March 2010 to March 2014
Project costs: 6.0 mill. € EU funding: 2.90 mill. € (as co-funding though the program
EU-Health & Consumers)
Homepage: www.nanogenotox.eu/

Nanogenotox is not directly a part of the 7th RP but rather a Joint Action, about half of which is funded by the participating European states. The task of this project is to study the gene toxicity (i.e. the damaging effect on the genetic material of organisms) of selected nanomaterials. …

NanoHouse

Title: Cycle of Nanoparticle-Based Products used in House-Coating

Coordinator: Francois Tardif,
CEA (Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives), Grenoble, Frankreich
Duration: January 2010 to July 2013
Project costs: 3.1 mill. €
EU funding: 2.4 mill. €
Homepage: www-nanohouse.cea.fr

The task of NanoHouse is to comprehensively evaluate environmentally relevant and health-related effects of nanoproducts used in house construction; the focus is on paints and coatings with TiO2- and nanosilver components, whose impacts and fates are being more closely examined. …

NanoImpactNet

Title: The European Network on the Health and Environmental Impact of Nanomaterials

Coordinator: Michael Riediker,
Institut universitaire romand der Santé au Travail, Schweiz (IST)
Duration: April 2008 to April 2012
Project costs: 3.19 mill. €
EU funding: 2.0 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanoimpactnet.eu

This large network of partner institutes from numerous countries is designed mainly to exchange information about new knowledge as well as knowledge gaps in the health- and environment-related impacts of nanoparticles. …

NanoLyse

Title: Nanoparticles in Food: Analytical Methods for Detection and Characterisation

Coordinator: Stefan Weigel,
RIKILT – Institute of Food Safety, Niederlande
Duration: January 2010 to October 2013
Project costs: 4.05 mill. €
EU funding: 2.95 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanolyse.eu

The goal of NanoLyse is to develop approved methods for analyzing synthetic nanomaterials in food and drinks. …

NANOMMUNE

Title: Comprehensive Assessment of Hazardous Effects of Engineered Nanomaterials on the Immune System Toxicology

Coordinator: Bengt Fadeel,
Karolinsk  Institutet, Stockholm
Duration: September 2008 to September 2011 (completed)
Project costs: 4.31 mill. €
EU funding: 3.36 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanommune.eu

NANOMMUNE examined the influence of synthetic nanomaterials on the immune system and their potential negative health effects. …

NanoPolyTox

Title: Toxicological impact of nanomaterials derived from processing, weathering and recycling of polymer nanocomposites used in various industrial applications

Coordinator: Socorro Vázquez-Campos,
LEITAT Technological Centre, Barcelona, Spain
Duration: May 2010 to May 2013
Project costs: 3.30 mill. €
EU funding: 2.43 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanopolytox.eu

NanoPolyTox is tasked with determining the changes in the physical and toxic properties of three different nanomaterials (nanotubes, nano-clay minerals, metal-oxide nanoparticles) that are used in combination with polymers as filling materials.  …

NanoReTox

Title: The reactivity and toxicity of engineered nanoparticles: risks to the environment and human health

Coordinator: Eugenia Valsami-Jones,
Natural History Museum, London, UK
Duration: December 2008 to December 2012
Project costs: 5.19 mill. €
EU funding: 3.19 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanoretox.eu

NanoReTox is designed to better describe the EHS-risks of synthetic nanomaterials based on new research results. …

NanoSustain

Title: Development of sustainable solutions for nanotechnology-based products based on hazard characterization and LCA

Coordinator: Rudolf Reuther,
NordMilijö AB, Sweden
Duration: May 2010 to May 2013
Project costs: 3.2 mill. €
EU funding: 2.5 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanosustain.eu

NanoSustain is designed to develop innovative solutions for all phases in dealing with nanotechnology products – up until the landfill or recycling stage. Four nanomaterials are being examined in greater detail: nano-cellulose, CNT, nano-TiO2, as well as nano-ZnO. …

NanoTransKinetics

Title: Modelling basis and kinetics of nanoparticle interaction with membranes, uptake into cells, and sub-cellular and inter-compartmental transport

Coordinator: Kenneth Dawson,
University College, Dublin, Ireland
Duration: November 2011 to November 2014
Project costs: 1.3 mill. €
EU funding: 0.99 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanotranskinetics.eu

The aim of NanoTransKinetics is to substantially improve the models used to describe biological (and therefore also toxic) interrelationships between nanoparticles and living organisms.  …

NanoValid

Title: Development of reference methods for hazard identification, risk assessment and LCA of engineered nanomaterials

Coordinator: Rudolf Reuther,
NordMiljö AB, Sweden
Duration: November 2011 to November 2015
Project costs: 13.4 mill. €
EU funding: 9.6 mill. €
Homepage: www.nanovalid.eu

The aim of NanoValid is to develop reference methods and materials to identify and assess the risks of synthetic nanomaterials in close cooperation with the similarly oriented project MARINA (see above). …

NEPHH

Title: Nanomaterials-related environmental pollution and health hazards throughout their life-cycle

Coordinator: EKOTEK S.L. (Spanien)
Duration: September 2009 to September 2012
Project costs: 3.1 mill. €
EU funding: 2.5 mill. €
Homepage: www.nephh-fp7.eu

NEPHH seeks to better estimate the environmental and health-related risks of nanostructures over the course of their use. …

NeuroNano

Title: Do nanoparticles induce neurodegenerative diseases? Understanding the origin of reactive oxidative species and protein aggregation and mis-folding phenomena in the presence of nanoparticles

Coordinator: Kenneth Dawson,
University College, Dublin, Ireland
Duration: February 2009 toFebruary 2012
Project costs: 4.8 mill. €
EU funding: 2.5 mill. €
Homepage: www.neuronano.eu

To date, the full details on the factors that allow nanoparticles to pass the blood-brain barrier are unknown15. NeuroNano examines the effect of nanoparticle size, shape and composition, along with the role of the adsorbed corona of biomolecules (see above). …

QNano

Title: A pan-european infrastructure for quality in nanomaterials safety testing

Coordinator: Kenneth Dawson,
University College, Dublin, Ireland
Duration: February 2011 to February 2015
Project costs: 9.2 mill. €
EU funding: 7.0 mill. €
Homepage: www.qnano-ri.eu

Rather than being devoted to a separate research topic, QNano is designed to interlink and support facilities that provide the necessary infrastructure for investigating and characterizing nanosubstances. …

That’s quite the list, eh?