Biomass graphene may create a huge industry

A new biomass graphene material may create a trillion-dollar industry when it is commercialized, a senior executive of Shengquan Group said Tuesday at a press conference in Beijing.

Jinan Shengquan Group Co. Ltd. has collaborated with a team of Yangtse River Scholar scientists at Heilongjiang University to successfully develop the biomass graphene.

Tang Yilin, the chairman of the board of Shengquan Group, said test runs of a production line which will produce 150 tons of biomass graphene annually will start in October, while the group will also apply to relevant government departments for approval of a project to produce 2000 tons of such material annually. Tang said that the group has also applied for 30 relevant patents.

"We will first use this material on our phenol-formaldehyde resin products and low-end products such as brake pads, grinding wheels," Tang said. The performance-enhancing effects of biomass graphene on these products will increase their market competitiveness.

Graphene is pure carbon in the form of a very thin, nearly transparent sheet only one atom thick. It is remarkably strong for its very low weight – 100 times stronger than steel – and it conducts heat and electricity with great efficiency.

While scientists have theorized about graphene for decades, it was not produced in a lab until 2004. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov of the University of Manchester won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene."

Shengquan Group was established in 1979 and is listed as one of the top five foundry auxiliary materials manufacturers in the world. As the leading bio-engineering enterprise in the world, Shengquan Group and scientists from Heilongjiang University worked hard to develop the techniques to produce the first ever biomass graphene made from straw. It is low-cost, environment-friendly and it makes use of a limitless supply of raw materials.

"As the relevant techniques in the graphene application area mature and improve, you will witness many miracles in the future, such as mobile phone screens that can be bent at will, electric automobiles which can have instant electricity charging, and computer screens that can be transparent and as thin as a piece of paper," Fu Honggang said. He is the top scientist of Shengquan Group's biomass carbon materials R&D institution and vice president of Heilongjiang University.

"Graphene will not only push global scientific advancement forward, but will also give birth to a trillion-dollar industry," Fu added.

The Shengquan Group’s Tang agreed. "As graphene will be widely used in various industries, there will be a new revolution of materials. This can also help improve the image of Chinese products in the international community and will significantly influence China's manufacturing industry. "