20/6/2022

Directa Plus: now the graphene made in Italy cleans oil fields up

Wired.it
20.06.2022

After having produced masks and fabrics, the leading Italian firm specializing in the production of “black powder” has now developed a new green application.

Directa Plus’ slogan, that appears on a mural inside its laboratories, is clear: “No journey can start without courage”. This mantra was adopted by Giulio Cesareo (founder and C.E.O.), who has succeeded in creating the true “American dream” in Italy.

How? Giulio invested in graphene, or, as they call it, “the black powder”. This material is “invisible” and strong, light and futuristic. “I wanted to create simple and sustainable carbon nanoplatelets production system” said Cesareo.

Directa Plus was founded in 2004 and its fields of application include fashion, environment, composites, tyres, elastomers and now also lithium-sulphur batteries.

The firm has many projects to credit, fashion capsule collections, strategies and 72 granted patents. Speaking about the textile industry, Directa has developed printed products and fabrics, t-shirt, shoes and sportswear items (that can lower heartbeats). The discovery of other important antimicrobial, bacteriostatic and antiviral characteristics led to the production of efficient filters against SARS-CoV-2, that were also used for air filtration systems, in cars, airplanes and for air-conditioning.

“Nevertheless, the most important area we operate in is the environmental one. First, we developed the product and then we brought it in tapping zones. We also bought a Romanian society that deals with oil fields decontamination services. In collaboration with OMV Petrom we recovered circa 8000 tons of petrol from polluted water and then sent the oil product we restored back to the refinery.

This oil contaminated treatment is called Grafysorber® and was authorized by the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and used for oil recovery. The product is made with only physical processes (with hight temperatures) and without the use of any harsh chemicals. For this reason, it is possible to restore the dispersed-in-water hydrocarbons and reuse them.

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