Conversion of Carbon Waste Streams to High-Value Graphene via Flash Joule Heating Process

This proposal utilizes a consortium approach to create an efficient circular economy between three large vertical markets (hydrogen energy, cement/concrete, and asphalt/concrete). Suncor is evaluating the potential to install a natural gas fed turquoise hydrogen facility in Alberta by 2026 to produce clean hydrogen and solid carbon by-product via a proven methane decomposition process. UMI would separately implement its flash joule heating process to produce graphene by upcycling the solid carbon by-product stream generated from Suncor’s hydrogen process. 

While graphene can be deployed in a myriad of end-use applications, the focus of this project is to utilize graphene in cement-and asphalt-based concrete applications. Small amounts of UMI’s proprietary graphene materials will create novel cement admixtures that significantly enhance the compressive strength of concrete. These strength benefits will enable the use of lower quantities of high-performance concrete to achieve an equivalent structural performance relative to conventional concrete. Similarly, graphene products can be incorporated in bitumen to deliver improved resistance to age hardening when compared to unmodified bitumen substrates, thereby enabling longer service life of the resulting asphalt paving solutions. By developing these sustainable graphene-containing cement- and asphalt-based materials, this technology will contribute to the reduction of GHG emissions. 

Using a circular economy framework, Canada’s natural gas resources can be fully exploited to produce a vital supply of clean hydrogen as well as a solid carbon waste stream that can be efficiently upcycled to an advanced carbon-based product, graphene, which is then deployed as a performance enhancer for subsequent use in cement- and asphalt-based materials. The net result, an interconnected sustainability solution benefiting all three vertical markets, would be a key opportunity for achieving Canada’s envrionmental goals.