World's First Road Surface Containing Graphene

RNS Number : 9304B

Directa Plus PLC

26 September 2018

 

26 September 2018

Directa Plus plc

("Directa Plus" or the "Company")

World's First Road Surface Containing Graphene

Directa Plus (AIM: DCTA), a producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets, announces the re-surfacing  of the first road in the world with a supermodifier containing graphene.  The road surface, on a section of Rome's Strada Provinciale Ardeatina, is part of a commercial test of Ecopave, which is based on Directa Plus's Graphene Plus (G+) graphene product.  Ecopave has been developed by the Company with Iterchimica, an Italian based world leader in products that enhance both asphalt performance and the laying of road surfaces in order to increase safety, environmental sustainability, and efficiency.

This phase of testing for Ecopave follows successful laboratory tests which showed that Ecopave can increase fatigue resistance up to 250 per cent, extending significantly the service life of the road surface at a lower life cycle cost than existing tarmacs.  Ecopave increases materially the surface's physical and mechanical performance by increasing resilience to deformation and by decreasing sensitivity to variations in ambient temperature.  The test involves the refurbishment of the two upper layers of a 1 km-long section of Strada Provinciale Ardeatina and is being carried out by Iterchimica with University La Sapienza (Rome) and the Metropolitan City of Rome which will constantly monitor the performance of the road surface.

Ecopave is the result of a three-year research programme with a patent filed in 2017.  New technologies such as Ecopave and the rejuvenation of old paving will help to meet Italy's Green and Circular Economy standards.  Once laid, Ecopave can be 100 per cent recycled which can reduce the extraction  of new materials from quarries and first-use bitumen. 

Commenting on the news, Giulio Cesareo, Founder and CEO of Directa Plus, said: "Environmental sustainability is one of our core values, embedded in our whole production process and in the life cycle of our products.  This application is perfectly in line with our values, enabling us to help to create roads that last longer thanks to our G+ family of products.  It is another example of the wide application of G+ technology into large established markets where we can materially improve product performance.  The Ecopave opportunity is substantial and we look forward to a time when motor vehicles with tyres containing G+ drive on roads surfaced with tarmacs containing G+."

Federica Giannattasio, CEO of Iterchimica, added: "Our supermodifier with G+ showed outstanding results in the lab tests.  The road service life significantly increases thanks to the increased resilience of the asphalt, which becomes more resistant.  With this field test we can prove that this technology can provide better roads, that are more sustainable and with less maintenance needs, with consequent benefits for public authorities, citizens and general contractors."

For further information please visit http://www.directa-plus.com/ or contact:

Directa Plus plc	[phone]
Giulio Cesareo, CEO
Marco Ferrari, CFO
Cantor Fitzgerald Europe (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)	[phone]
Rick Thompson, Philip Davies (Corporate Finance)
Caspar Shand Kydd (Sales)
N+1 Singer (Joint Broker)	[phone]
Mark Taylor, Lauren Kettle
Tavistock (Financial PR and IR)	[phone]
Simon Hudson, Sophie Praill, Edward Lee

This announcement contains inside information as defined in Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation No. 596/2014 and is disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of those Regulations

Notes

Our focus is principally on the two sectors in which we have strong commercial advantage through developed and launched products and a technological lead: environmental (based on our Grafysorber® product) and textiles (based on our G+ products).  In addition, we will continue to pursue opportunities in tyres and asphalt, also using our G+ products.  All our products are hypoallergenic, non-toxic and sustainably produced.

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