Producing graphene from biogas: an innovative, renewable and cost-effective value-chain for industrialising the material of the future

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It is expected that graphene demand will sharply grow in the next years, and is a priority for the EU to lead its production globally. In the agri-food industry and wastewater treatment plants, anaerobic digestion is a proven technology for treatment of wet-waste biomass, which allows generation of biogas as renewable energy. Additionally, biogas can be upgraded into biomethane and CO2, which are organic carbon sources which can be used as raw materials for manufacturing graphene in a circular economy approach: biographene. We are Biogenera Renovables, and we have developed a plug-and-play solution for producing graphene from biomethane in biogas plants via Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD). We have a working prototype of the technology (now TRL6) in collaboration with PlanarTech, another R&D intensive SME key in graphene industrialisation, and we are finetuning an innovative business model to have a long-term leadership. Our business model consists in partnering with biogas plants to install our Biographene Production Unit in their premises, as well as sharing the profits of the sales. It will allow graphene production to be economically viable at industrial scale and simultaneously is a way to increase the profitability of biogas plants and boost the renewable energy sector. To market it, we will explore how to collaborate with PlanarTech. Our breakthrough technology coupled with the business model proposed has the potential of transforming the industrial production of graphene, whose high-quality production will be sold to technological industry, and its low-quality fraction will be sold to packaging industry, which is currently highly interested in incorporating graphene to strengthen their materials (reinforcing paper pulp for bags). From 2022 to 2026, 12 BioGraphene production units will be installed, which will imply the growth of Biogenera Renovables in terms of personnel (28 new positions will be directly created) and revenues, with 1.7 M€ of net profits