Directa Plus PLC has said that its patented G+ graphene will be used in the asphalt for a 250 kilometre (km) motorway section in Italy, along with selected recycled hard plastics such as toys, fruit crates and litter bins, to make a product called Gipave.
The contract to use the Gipave asphalt ‘supermodifier’ in the road surfacing of the A4 Torino-Milano motorway section was won by the AIM-listed company's Italian partner Iterchimica with motorway management and infrastructure specialist ASTM Group.
Gipave uses Directa's graphene to improve resistance and life span for road surfaces.
Giulio Cesareo, founder and chief executive of the AIM-listed company, said the contract “is a significant validation of our product with no significant impact on 2022 sales but a supply of several tons of material in 2023/2024”.
The asphalt used for the resurfacing of this motorway section by ASTM will re-use 70% of milled material from existing pavement, the company said, reducing the use of new natural aggregates to only 30%, while using Gipave will also reduce energy consumption by 90mln kilowatt hours and CO2 emissions by 18.4mln kgs compared to standard asphalt.
The Torino-Milano contract follows a series of demonstration projects in Italy and the UK to prove the benefits of Gipave, and one kilometre of paving of the new Ponte San Giorgio bridge in Genova.
Demonstration projects in the UK included the re-surfacing of two sections of road in Oxfordshire, with the first in 2019 showing that Gipave increased the lifespan of the surface by up to 70% compared to conventional resurfacing methods, with reduced risk of rutting under loads from heavy goods vehicles.
Gipave was developed by Directa Plus and Iterchimica and patented in 2017, with an agreement signed by the two companies in 2020 that provides for the exclusive supply of the G+ graphene product to Iterchimica in the asphalt and bitumen sector worldwide for an initial duration of three years.
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