RCS - Directa Plus PLC - First Major Commercial Contract for Gipave

Directa PlusAnnouncement

21/10/2022 07:00

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RNS Number : 6386D  Directa Plus PLC  21 October 2022

21 October 2022

 

Directa Plus plc

("Directa Plus" or the "Company")

 

First Major Commercial Contract for Gipave

Italian national motorway to be paved with asphalt enhanced by graphene
supermodifier

 

Directa Plus (AIM: DCTA), a leading producer and supplier of graphene
nanoplatelets based products for use in consumer and industrial markets,
announces that an innovative, sustainable, resilient and safe asphalt for the
A4 Torino-Milano motorway section, managed by the ASTM Group will be made with
G+® graphene and specially selected recycled hard plastics (e.g., toys, fruit
crates, litter bins). The asphalt will re-use 70% of milled material from
existing pavement, thus reducing the use of new natural aggregates to only
30%. The works will involve both directions for a total of 250 km.

 

The presence of G+® in Gipave® will guarantee greater resistance and mean a
longer life span for the road.  In addition, the project will deliver
significant environmental benefits: energy consumption will be reduced by 90
million kilowatt hours (equivalent to the annual consumption of 30.000
families) and CO(2) emissions will be reduced by 18.4 million kilograms
(equivalent to the absorption capacity of 115.000 trees).

 

ASTM is an industrial group operating in the sectors of motorway
management, large infrastructure engineering and construction projects and
transport and mobility technology.  The group is the second largest toll
road operator in the world with approximately 6,200 km of road managed
through concessions in Italy, Brazil and the UK.

 

Gipave® contains the Company's G+® graphene and was developed by Iterchimica
with the support of Directa Plus and resulted from a three-year research
programme with a patent filed in 2017.  The product uses waste plastics that
would not normally be recycled and the asphalt containing Gipave® can itself
be entirely recycled - promoting the 'circular economy,' which reduces waste
and the need for new materials.

 

This commercial contract follows the one kilometre paving of the new Ponte San
Giorgio bridge in Genova and a series of demonstration projects to prove the
benefits of Gipave®.  These have included projects in Italy - airports, and
roads - and the UK - re-surfacing of a section of the main road in Curbridge,
Oxfordshire, a road section in Dartford, resurfacing trial in Staffordshire
and a trial section of a road in Essex.  The successful first pilot scheme in
Curbridge, Oxfordshire in 2019 showed that Gipave® increases the lifespan of
the surface by up to 70 per cent compared to conventional resurfacing methods.
The risk of rutting under loads from heavy goods vehicles is also reduced by
increased stiffness in the product.

 

Commenting, Giulio Cesareo, Founder and CEO of Directa Plus, said: "Directa
Plus has supported partner Iterchimica both in Italy and in the UK from the
very beginning of the Gipave® graphene asphalt project.

 

"We are particularly proud to have assisted our partner in the evolution of
this application from the trial sections demonstration projects to significant
full industrial applications of G+® enhanced asphalt supermodifiers on high
mileage motorways, ensuring positive impacts for the environment and local
communities. It is a significant validation of our product with no significant
impact on 2022 sales but a supply of several tons of material in 2023/2024."

 

 

Federica Giannattasio, CEO Iterchimica, added: "After six years of research
and development and numerous trial sections in Italy and abroad that have
demonstrated both the technical and environmental performance of this
technology, we are extremely proud to contribute together with the ASTM Group
to the resurfacing of the A4 Torino-Milano motorway, which will thus become
the first hi-tech, safe and sustainable motorway in Europe. The work is being
carried out thanks to GiPave's patented technology and our know-how, which we
have put at ASTM's disposal to enable the main road link in north-west Italy
to achieve this prestigious result. This project, which represents a first
step, makes us quite proud and places Italy at the forefront and in line with
the ecological transition objectives set out in the UN's 2030 Agenda. The
environmental savings are unprecedented, reaching emission reductions of up to
38,5% compared to traditional maintenance technologies. We thank our graphene
partner Directa Plus that worked shoulder to shoulder with us since the
beginning of this journey "

 

For further information please visit http://www.directa-plus.com/
(http://www.directa-plus.com/) or contact:

 

 Directa Plus plc                                            +39 02 36714458
 Giulio Cesareo, CEO / Giorgio Bonfanti, CFO

 Cenkos Securities plc (Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)  +44 131 220 6939
 Neil McDonald / Adam Rae

 Singer Capital Markets (Joint Broker)                       +44 20 7496 3069
 Rick Thompson / Phil Davies

 Tavistock (Financial PR and IR)                             +44 20 7920 3150
 Simon Hudson / Heather Armstrong

 

About Directa Plus

Directa Plus (www.directa-plus.com) is one of the largest producers and
suppliers of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial
markets. The Company's graphene manufacturing capability uses proprietary
patented technology based on a plasma super expansion process. Starting from
natural graphite, each step of Directa Plus' production process - expansion,
exfoliation and drying - creates graphene-based materials and hybrid graphene
materials ready for a variety of uses and available in various forms such as
powder, liquid and paste.

 

This proprietary production process uses a physical process, rather than a
chemical process, to process graphite into pristine graphene nanoplatelets,
which enables Directa Plus to offer a sustainable, non-toxic product, without
unwanted by-products. Directa Plus' products are made of hybrid graphene
materials and graphene nano-platelets. The products (marketed as G+®) have
multiple applications due to its properties. These G+® products can be
categorised into various families, with different products being suitable for
specific practical applications.

 

Directa Plus was established in 2005 and is based in Lomazzo (Como, Italy) and
has been listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange since May 2016.
The Company holds the Green Economy Mark from London Stock Exchange which
recognises companies that contribute to the global green economy.

 

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