A startup launched by students out of Curtin University's Accelerate program creates graphite from waste carbon.

High-purity graphite is substantially sought-after for graphene production and is in heavy demand for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. A new technology developed through Curtin University's Accelerate program in Australia, coined RapidGraphite, transforms waste carbon into battery-grade graphite within seconds.

The Accelerate program supports early-stage startups, helping young founders to develop entrepreneurial skills, connect with investors, and further elevate their products and services into thriving businesses. Selectees are led by Larry Lopez, chair of Curtin's commercialization advisory board and a globally recognized expert in venture funding and building high-growth companies.

Curtin experimental research academic and material scientist Jason Fogg and his team have developed this transformative graphite-producing technology and launched a startup, which is among the 13 initiatives being developed into innovative businesses through the program in 2024.

"With RapidGraphite's proprietary technology, we can bring a world-first solution to graphite manufacturers to help them turn their waste carbon into battery-grade graphite, overcoming technical bottlenecks that exist today," Fogg said. "Our team is excited about Accelerate. We see it as an opportunity to bring RapidGraphite out of the university and into the world."

Though RapidGraphite's proprietary details are still under wraps, Fogg has been working on the alchemy of carbon transformation for several years. In a co-authored report published in Nature back in July of 2020, Fogg and fellow researchers wrote, "This process is distinct from catalytic graphitisation where metals such as iron and nickel enable the conversion of non-graphitising carbons into graphite at relatively modest temperatures around 2,000 degrees Celsius. The downside of catalysis is that metallic particles are interspersed with the graphite crystals and are difficult to remove."

Those experiments used the furnace inside an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer, where the researchers repeated higher-temperature pulsing of polyvinylidene chloride with the unexpected result of roughly 90% of the sample transforming into highly ordered graphite with very few defects.

"We apply the same approach to cellulose and obtain ten times more ordered material than conventional furnaces, confirming that polyvinylidene chloride is not an isolated case. Potentially, this method could be used to synthesise graphite from any organic material, including waste sources such as biomass," the report pointed out.

At the time of publication four years ago, the reasons the process was so effective were still being explored. Now, the technology has been refined, and with the support of the Accelerator program going on this year, Fogg's team is ready to bring RapidGraphite into the world commercially.

Once up and running, RapidGraphite expects to generate and license intellectual property for catalytic rapid graphitization and co-develop their furnace technology with manufacturers for synthesis and purification.