Latin America
by Charles W. Thurston
Latin America Correspondent
thurstoncw@rodmanmedia.com
Graphenano has elevated its presence in the Colombian paint and coatings market with an exterior refurbishing of
the Teatro Adolfo Mejía, located in Cartagena
de Indias. The company is donating its proprietary Graphenstone coating, which is an elastic
combination of graphene and limestone that
absorbs airborne carbon dioxide and becomes
rock hard.
Apart from the Mejía theater, Graphenano
also has contracted to restore the summer Casa
del Presidente, the Palacio de la Inquisición, and
the Teatro Heredia, all in Cartegena. Elsewhere
in the Andean region, the company indicates
that it is actively targeting Bolivia, Chile and
Peru for short term expansion.
In Chile, Graphenano recently put on a technical seminar with the Corporación de Desarrollo
Tecnológico CDT de la Cámara Chilena de la
Construcción, the technology development arm
of the national construction association.
In Bolivia, Graphenano has donated
Graphenstone for the refurbishment of the
Unidad de Urgencias y Pediatría del Hospital
de Oncología de Santa Cruz, the childrens’ cancer hospital. The company also has also agreed
to help the Escuela Militar de Ingeniería, the
national military school of engineering with its
expansion plans.
A variety of paint companies have improved brand awareness in similar marketing
projects in Brazil, Mexico and other countries,
where historic buildings are restored in situations in which municipalities can not afford
to the finance the project. Graphenano has
already been involved in several high profile
public projects in Europe, including the Museo
de Bellas Artes de Sevilla.
The company’s Yecla, Murcia-based factory, which required investment of at least
€200 million, is said to be capable of producing an estimated 2,000 pounds of graphene per
day, according to varying reports from Spain.
Comprised of 90 percent Spanish capital and
10 percent German capital, Graphenano has
an R&D center located in Ciudad Real, at the
University of Castilla La Mancha. The company has sales offices throughout Latin America.
Paint or coatings that include graphene layers can function as a structural component, including self-healing properties. Graphene can
be as thin as one atom of carbon, arranged in
a hexagonal-patterned blanket. It is also up to
200 times stronger than steel and conducts electricity better than copper, the company claims.
In the future, the company expects to produce solar sensitive graphene nanoparticles that
can be applied to the surface of a building as a
crude photovoltaic generator. Graphenano has
“hundreds of R&D projects underway,” CEO
Martín Martínez Rovira recently told Spain’s
La Verdad newspaper, based in Murcia.
“Our formulas improve their properties
exponentially – primarily by savings in material consumption, given that we operate at a
nanometric scale, allowing us to achieve higher
values of hardness, compressive and tensile
strength, and elasticity than the ones obtained
with any common coating,” the company sug-gestes. “These enhanced properties, added to
weight reduction, allow improvements in total
returns of equipment and facilities,” they added.
Graphene R&D in Europe is being supported by the Graphene Flagship, the EU’s
biggest research initiative, with a budget of €1
billion. The 2013 initiate is coordinated by the
Chalmers University of Technology, based in
Gothenburg, Sweden. The initiative is tasked
with bringing together academic and industrial
researchers “to take graphene from the realm
of academic laboratories into European society
in the space of 10 years, generating economic
growth, new jobs and new opportunities.” CW
Graphenano
is donating
its proprietary
Graphenstone
coating, which
is an elastic
combination of
graphene and
limestone, to
refurbish the
exterior of the
Teatro Adolpho
Mejía.
Spain’s Graphenano Steps Up Andean Presence
