'Super Material' Stronger Than Steel, Harder Than Diamonds, More Conductive Than Copper

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Graphene is a form of carbon that exists in trace amounts in nature where its atoms are arranged in a flat sheet of interconnected hexagons, just one atom thick, resembling a honeycomb pattern.

The resulting "super material" is "stronger than steel, harder than diamonds, more conductive than copper, with better electron mobility than silicon," HydroGraph Clean Power noted on its website.

"It boosts clean energy by improving batteries, solar panels, and supercapacitors," the company said. "Versatile and unique, graphene could revolutionize industries and technology."

Jay Taylor of Taylor Media and 321gold's Bob Moriarty recently interviewed HydroGraph Clean Power Inc. (HG:CSE) Chief Executive officer, President, and Board Chair Kjirstin Breure in a video posted on YouTube.

During the interview, Breure highlighted that the production of pure graphene represents a remarkable technical achievement. She said the company has the groundbreaking ability to produce pristine graphene at a significant cost advantage over any other producer.

Moriarty emphasized that HydroGraph's capability to produce pure graphene is a technical milestone comparable to the transistor's invention. The transistor led to the silicon semiconductor, fundamentally transforming the lives of nearly everyone on the planet in ways that were unimaginable at the time. Even today, with artificial intelligence (AI) significantly enhancing productivity, the impact of these technologies continues to shape our lives in unforeseen ways.

The company currently has a market cap of just US$43 million, suggesting a massive potential upside, Taylor noted.

Tech Leading to AI Breakthroughs

When graphene sheets accumulate in the hundreds, they form graphite. In 1947, Canadian physicist P. R. Wallace theorized that carbon could also manifest as flat sheets. Later, in 1986, German chemist Hanns-Peter Boehm and his team managed to isolate individual sheets from graphite and named them graphene. The material was further explored and characterized in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester, England. Their groundbreaking work on graphene earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010.

Recently, a group of scientists published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences detailing a groundbreaking graphene-based sensor that, with the aid of machine learning, has developed a near-human sense of taste, according to a report by Charles Blue on July 11 for Phys.org. This innovative device is the first to function effectively in damp conditions, closely mimicking the environment of the human mouth.

In their experiments, the researchers exposed the sensor to 160 distinct chemicals, each linked to specific taste profiles. These interactions caused electrical changes in the sensor, which were recorded and analyzed. A machine-learning algorithm processed this data to form a "memory" of flavors, mimicking the human brain's method of interpreting taste signals from the taste buds.

During its trials, the newly developed artificial tasting system, trained to recognize the four basic tastes, demonstrated its ability to accurately identify previously encountered flavors with about 98.5% accuracy. This marks a significant advancement in the field of sensory technology, potentially leading to new applications in food science and beyond.

According to research by Markets and Markets, the global graphene market size was estimated at US$195.7 million in 2023 and is projected to reach USD$1.6 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 35.1% from 2024 to 2030. The growth of the market can be attributed to growing electronics industry in emerging economies and the high penetration of graphene in composite applications, the firm said.

Researchers said that electronic component applications accounted for the largest market revenue share in 2023. Based on end use, the automotive end-use segment dominated the market in 2023. North America was the largest market, but Asia Pacific is the fastest growing.

A Pivotal Year

During the interview, Breure shared her belief that 2025 marks a pivotal year for HydroGraph, with 2026 poised to significantly enhance market understanding of the company's potential for exponential growth and impressive profit margins of around 70%. Key developments expected soon include the announcement of a new, larger, and more efficient factory in Texas. While there are inherent risks in any startup, waiting for HydroGraph's first commercial contract — anticipated later this year — also poses the risk of "missing the train as it leaves the station," Taylor noted in the written introduction to the post.

According to the website, HydroGraph said its product is being tested by more than 60 active customers and its current production capacity is 10 tons per year. Breure said the new plant should be able to put out 25 tons per year.

The nanomaterial was literally discovered using clear tape on graphite to isolate one layer of the element.

"If you imagine graphite, it's billions and billions of layers of graphene, with graphite as a feedstock and mechanically or chemically exfoliating it to really get down to that one atomic layer," she said.

However, HydroGraph does not use that process to make its graphene. The company uses a method that produces synthetic graphene.

"We pump acetylene and oxygen into a steel chamber," Breure said. "We have electrodes inside that fire in synchrony, and it basically destabilizes the molecules, creating a bomb. So, if you can imagine kind of a bomb going off and a cloud of smoke, starting to crystallize, that's basically what we're doing. We are taking that graphene that results from that explosion."

All Agree: Invention Will Change the World

Breure compared the advancement to the invention of the silicon chip and how much that has changed the world.

"Graphene actually has superior conductivity," she said. "We're going to have materials in the future that currently we can't really imagine. I find that very, very exciting to kind of build these new materials that we'll be using in our emerging technologies."

Moriarty agreed, calling it a game-changer, but said it also reminded him of one 20th century invention that also changed a lot, the transistor.

"The magnitude of what you've got is absolutely incredible," Moriarty said. "I love the story of how you invented your product because it was an accident."

Breure said the company is in discussions for offtake agreements for its unique product and expects to have announcements later this year. "Larger contracts are going to come in 2026, but we will have a number of smaller wins this year," she said.

This year will be an "inflection point" for the company, with most of the movement coming from the defense industry.

"We have had a lot of interest from a lot of parties, some government affiliated, some defense related," Breure said. "I really do think that this is now taking on a life of its own."

Higher-End Product Worth Premium Fees

HydroGraph's new factory will have acetylene piped right into the plant. It should be open by Q1 or Q2 next year, she said.

"We are scalable, and we will be able to deliver on . . . huge amounts of graphene," according to Breure.

She also said the production will be "higher end" graphene and will be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per ton.

"We often make graphenes really for the customer based on their specific requirements," she noted. "Because we're synthetic, we have that ability."

The company has a 70% margin on the product and plans to list on the NASDAQ next year.

"How long will it take for investors to begin to realize that the application of graphene will dramatically change the future lives of people around the world to the extent semiconductors and computers have changed our lives?" Taylor asked in his introduction.

During the interview, he asked Breure where she sees the company's market cap heading.

"I firmly believe this company is going to be worth billions," she responded.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to Refinitiv, about 3% of the company is owned by insiders and management, and less than 1% is owned by institutions. The rest is retail.

Top shareholders include Robert Wowk with 0.95%, David Morris with 0.67%, David Williams with 0.66%, Paul Richard Cox with 0.43%, and the CEO Kjirstin Breure with 0.22%.

Its market cap is CA$64.19 with 266.8 million shares outstanding. Its 52-week range is CA$0.10 and CA$0.37.