EL CENTRO, Calif., July 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Graphene, Inc. (OTC: BIEI) announced today the commencement of testing for its partner company’s proprietary graphene-enhanced asphalt. These tests will evaluate the durability, thermal properties, cost-efficiency, and environmental impact of HGI Industrial Technologies and Premier’s proprietary graphene-enhanced asphalt compared to traditional asphalt formulations.
Approximately 90% of roads in the United States are constructed using asphalt mixtures, making asphalt pavement the predominant choice globally. However, this widely used road surface faces unprecedented challenges. In cold weather regions, annual repair budgets have historically reached hundreds of millions of dollars due to damage caused by snowplows. Moreover, rising global temperatures from climate change are increasingly stressing road infrastructure in hot climates, leading to issues like cracks, rutting, and loose pavement.
To enhance the longevity and performance of asphalt, companies worldwide are urgently seeking economically viable modification technologies. Currently, asphalt is modified using materials such as rubber, plastics, and resins. However, these modifications come with their own set of challenges, including lengthy preparation protocols, stabilization during storage, and difficulties in mixing at both plants and job sites.
Recently, the world's largest materials companies have started incorporating nanoscale materials into asphalt to significantly enhance its performance and durability. Graphene, extensively studied across physics, chemistry, engineering, and materials science for its strength, durability, and conductivity, shows immense promise in various infrastructure applications like roads and bridges. Premier Graphene is integrating HGI’s proprietary graphene formulation into asphalt mixtures to assess structural strength, thermal conductivity, and cost-effectiveness in some of the world's hottest and coldest regions.
One crucial advantage of graphene is its lower aspect ratio compared to other carbon nanomaterials, plastics, and resins, facilitating easier use at job sites. Using graphene ensures consistent mixture ratios, unlike traditional additives such as rubbers, polymers, and other carbon materials.
Premier Graphene is currently conducting 3rd party testing on HGI’s proprietary graphene/asphalt mixtures to identify the optimal ratio for enhanced ease of use, mechanical strength, thermal stability, and overall durability of graphene-enhanced asphalt. By identifying this ideal ratio, which offers significantly improved properties over conventional asphalt blends, Premier Graphene aims to potentially save billions of dollars annually for federal, state, and local municipalities by drastically cutting down on road maintenance costs, all while significantly extending the life and quality of the resulting product.
Pedro Mendez, President of Premier Graphene stated: “Our early, initial tests have yielded outstanding results. Our team believes that HGI's unique graphene formulation, particularly given the results to date, is destined to dramatically affect the durability of asphalt by enhancing its resistance. By using less asphalt, our discovery may have dramatic results on reducing CO2 emissions.”
Mr. Mendez added: “There is no street in North America that doesn’t have either asphalt or concrete either on the roads or as part of a building structure. We are initially targeting what we believe are two of the largest potential markets for graphene dispersions. Additionally, these are two of the most efficacious uses, at least perhaps other than the military applications we are targeting.”
After Premier Graphene identifies the optimum mix ratio, the company will work with large multinational road construction companies to selectively build specific sections of road strategically located in extremely cold weather regions, high-temperature regions, high traffic and environmentally affected areas with the graphene-enhanced asphalt. Transportation of America estimates that the annual cost to keep the United States federally operated existing roadwork in acceptable repair quality and to upgrade roads that are graded as poor to good is $231 billion per year. Long-term monitoring of these select sections of road with graphene-enhanced asphalt will establish conclusive data on the numerous benefits of graphene-enhanced asphalt.
About Premier Graphene, Inc. (OTC: BIEI):
Premier Graphene partner HGI Industrial Technologies LLC has created a proprietary, scalable method to create high-quality, low-cost graphene out of industrial hemp. The Company plans on creating proprietary graphene colloids that can address billion-dollar markets such as the cement industry. The Company also enjoys the capacity to create proprietary best-in-class graphene-enhanced lubricants and epoxies. The Company’s initial rollout will focus on markets that will require small capital expenditures. For example, and in the case of the cement industry, the Company will sell its graphene suspensions to existing multi-national cement manufacturers.
Premier is engaged in a holding company reorganization so that the parent company, renamed from “Premier Biomedical Inc.”, has almost no convertible debentures (less than $20,000) outstanding. As a result, the successor issuer public company, Premier Graphene, Inc., has nearly no debt. The predecessor issuer’s debt remains in the original company, now a subsidiary of the publicly traded company. The Company is traded on the OTC Market in full compliance with OTC Market reporting requirements. Premier Graphene, Inc. is in the process of a single corporate action – changing its name with FINRA and thus OTC Markets. It is involved in the development of sophisticated products utilizing the unique characteristics of graphene, partnering with various related corporations and unrelated corporations.
Contact:
Pedro Mendez
p.mendez@premiergrapheneinc.com
info@premiergrapheneinc.com
