Emerging tech: A portrait of Canada's graphene ecosystem

If graphene were a superhero, its catchphrase would be, "Stronger than steel, thinner than paper." Indeed, graphene is often referred to as a "supermaterial" because it is the strongest material yet discovered, even at a thickness of only a single layer of atoms (in that sense, graphene is also called the first "two-dimensional material.") Graphene boasts other unusually powerful traits as well: flexible, transparent, highly conductive of both heat and electricity, and impermeable. Because of its special qualities, graphene has applications for electronics, photovoltaics, semiconductors, water filtration, and many more domains.

Market Forecast

Grand View Research is forecasting that the graphene market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38 percent and reach US$552.3 million by 2025, mainly from electronic applications, while IDTechEx Research says that energy storage will make up a major part of the market. Demand is coming primarily from the Asia-Pacific region, owing to factors like its high economic growth rate, manufacturing industries, and the growing number of graphene-based application patents. The medical sector represents a significant growing market for graphene, which is used in bioelectric sensory devices, as well as in cancer treatment, therapeutic tools, prosthetic devices, dental implants, and DNA testing. Batteries is another growth area for graphene, thanks to the rise in electric vehicle sales and the thriving portable electronics market.

Canadian graphene leaders

The two biggest publicly-traded companies working mainly with graphene in Canada are NanoXplore in Montreal, a manufacturer and supplier of high volume graphene powder, and Saint Jean Carbon in Calgary, a carbon science company focused on green energy storage and creation. NanoXplore currently holds 29 active patents for its technology and received $31 million from investors in 2019 to expand its graphene production plant, add new production lines, and purchase equipment. The company acquired the Swiss-based precision injection molding company CEBO Injections in 2017, and acquired the composite product manufacturer SIGMA Industries in 2018, and saw 784.95% growth in sales the following year, which raised its market cap to $134 million. Saint Jean Carbon currently holds 85 active patents for its technology and has acquired 12 companies since 2015, but its market cap is only $1.9 million after steep declines in revenue and income last year. ZEN Graphene Solutions in Thunder Bay, Ontario also trades on the TSX with a market cap of $27.5 million but has yet to post any revenue, as it is still developing the Albany Graphite Deposit, a "rare, igneous related, hydrothermal graphite deposit with the potential to produce a natural, high-purity graphite that may compete in high-technology markets traditionally reserved for synthetic graphite."

Canadian startups and SMEs

There are several promising graphene startups and SMEs in Canada. Grafoid is a graphene research, development and investment company in Kingston, Ontario that has developed a one-step graphene production process that extracts graphene directly from graphite ore. Coatings developer and manufacturer NanoPhyll has engineered a "graphene-enhanced graphite-filled fluoropolymer composite coating material" called PFAPhyll. The Montreal-based startup ORA works with graphene nano-materials to serve the audio market with smaller/lighter, energy-efficient speakers that it says improve sound quality. Evercloak is a cleantech startup co-founded by University of Waterloo Engineering professor Michael Pope, commercializing energy-efficient graphene-based membranes for dehumidification applications; in February of this year, the company received $900K from Ottawa to scale up its technology. Graphene Leaders Canada (GLC) Inc. is an early-stage private graphene production and applications company that makes bulk nanomaterials with graphene.

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