Graphene nanoplatelets product supplier Directa Plus said it had been granted an EU-wide patent covering the use of its graphene-based technology for treating waters and sludges contaminated by hydrocarbons.
The field of application granted in the patent covered produced waters, refinery waters, and, in general, any kind of wastewater which contained relatively low but still dangerous amount of hydrocarbons, the company said.
“Such waters are generally very difficult to treat and often expensive and complex, involving multiple step processes that in most cases must be specific for each type of hydrocarbon,” it added. By contrast, the company’s Grafysorber adsorbant offered a one-step process, that mixed the water to be treated with Grafysorber and then allowed the contaminants to be recovered.
