The UAE's Dana Gas has signed a deal with UK-based Levidian for a graphene production site, in a move that could eventually allow the UAE to become a key global producer of the advanced material.
Graphene, considered the thinnest and strongest additive material, is mainly used for industrial purposes in sectors such as construction, batteries, paints, sensors and medical devices, among others.
Dana Gas, one of the largest private natural gas companies in the Middle East, and Levidian signed an initial agreement at the Make it in the Emirates event to develop the Sharjah Graphene Park to produce the material.
The project will begin with an investment of $2 million to $5 million in the initial phase. That could rise to $50 million for early expansion, with the potential to further exceed that amount in the next stages, the companies said.
Expansion should be within the next two to four years and “depends on how quickly the customers adopt”, Matthew Nix, head of corporate finance at Dana Gas in the Middle East, told The National.
“There's a number of orders already in the pipeline. It's more of a challenge of sort of building up capacity quickly enough,” said Mr Nix.
Levidian already works with customers in the Middle East and is confident about rapid uptake, said Alex Holden, its chief operating officer.
“We're at some very late stage, very high performance trials with customers that in the next 12 months will quickly turn into significant orders,” he told The National.
The site in the first phase is expected to deliver graphene production capacity of about 15 tonnes a year, using Levidian’s Loop technology.
That level should be reached by the end of this year, the executives said. “The units are ready. One of them is already on the way here now,” Mr Nix said.
Depending on market demand and the success of the initial phase, the project will expand.
The Loop units are modular and scaling up can be done rapidly. “We're hoping that, within the next couple of years, we're in the sort of hundreds of tonnes a year,” Mr Nix added.
In the future, the idea is to completely localise assembly, integration and manufacturing of Loop systems in the UAE, the companies said.
How it works
Cambridge-headquartered Levidian's Loop technology uses microwave plasma to crack methane and produce hydrogen and solid carbon in the form of graphene.
This opens up new commercial opportunities from gas that might otherwise be underused, while also reducing emissions.
According to Levidian, the use of graphene can lead to significant improvements in performance, durability and efficiency, without increasing weight or complexity.
The graphene produced locally will be used in sectors including construction, polymers, coatings and energy.
“There's a huge amount of usage opportunities for graphene in the UAE, and there is plenty of feedstock,” Mr Holden said.
Producing graphene locally will bring down the prices for local buyers, he said. “Our key inputs are gas and electricity, both of which Dana Gas have at a very, very favourable rate,” he said.
While energy prices have soared in recent months due to the Iran war, plans are in place to offset some of them.
“On the energy side, we're looking at various different ways of using solar and other renewable sources to kind of offset some of that cost,” Mr Nix said.
In terms of natural gas, there are various sources “that we can look to tap into, adjacent to our site, including potential green sources”, he said.
“So, we've been in discussions with various people about potentially capturing methane and things like that, taking carbon out of the atmosphere.”
The Loop technology also produces graphene at a “much better cost” than other competing methods, he added.
“This is a long term play for us, therefore you hope this short-term volatility [due to the energy crisis] moves through the system and it will move back to a more manageable level,” said Mr Holden.
“And in the interim period, we are continuing to work on the efficiency of the technology, so driving down the amount of energy and gas that we use, therefore making it more cost effective.”
Key producers
Globally, the graphene market size is expected to grow from $2.91 billion in 2026 to more than $15 billion by 2031, according to Mordor Intelligence estimates.
At present, China is the biggest producer of graphene, with other key players including the US, South Korea, Canada and parts of Europe.
“A lot of graphene is produced in China, however, whether that conforms to the tightest ISO standards is unclear,” said Mr Holden. “We very much adhere to those ISO standards and have very consistent repeatability.”
The growth for the material is expected to be “exponential” in the future, the executives said.
“Our demand for graphene material currently outstrips our supply. So working with Dana Gas, we're looking to see how quickly we can ramp up that supply,” said Mr Holden.
For Dana Gas, while graphene production is outside of its typical oil and gas operations, “we're using one of the feedstocks that we would normally produce, and sort of looking to get into the rest of the value chain”, said Mr Nix.
“And we think it's a really interesting application, really interesting technology with huge demand growth potential over time. We're very happy to support it and be part of Sharjah and the UAE, sort of becoming one of the largest graphene producers in the world, hopefully.”
