One ingredient, endless opportunities for innovation.

In the industrial plants for the production of electrodes, it is a concert of screams, aspirators, and motors. Blocks of graphite are moulded, cut, and milled. The resulting powder is aspirated and then stored in bins. Just one industrial plant generates dozens of tons every year. Until 2014, the story ended like this: the bins were sent to landfill and then buried. This is it, and many greetings.

But why waste such a precious resource, negatively impacting the environment and communities?

Industrial graphite is the result of a long and energy-intensive process that uses petroleum coke or coal tar.

Since 2014, something has changed. Industrial graphite destined for disposal has been given another opportunity. The bins, instead of ending up in landfill, are loaded onto trucks that would otherwise return from Turin to Vicenza empty. A ‘freeload’ trip, you might say. An optimized transport that allows the graphite to reach a first refinement plant. Once sifted and cleaned of waste and foreign materials, the graphite is sanitized and brought to different grain sizes by an exclusive device patented by Alisea. From 30 to 250 microns, everything is possible. Different grain sizes, different applications. A world of new opportunities opens up. The first compounds are born in which polymers combine with graphite to intertwine their characteristics and improve them: upgraded recycled graphite. The ingredient is always the same, the formulations change.

But something is still missing. 

Is it possible to improve the key ingredient? And how? 

Since 2021, thanks to advanced research on graphii coat 30GP, Alisea has added an excipient to the first generation upgraded recycled graphite that can improve the performance of the compounds. This is a mineral ingredient developed by the cosmetics industry, compatible with the skin. The excipient leads to a new patented production system based on exclusive machinery.

The new ingredient is called “g upgraded recycled graphite”. 

Compared to graphite, “g upgraded recycled graphite” boasts advanced features in terms of:

- Electrical conductivity
- Lubrication
- Impact resistance
- UV resistance
- Thermal resistance
- Thermal reflectivity
- Hardness
- Durability
- Versatility
- Purity
- Soft touch
- Cleanliness in production processes 

Behind an invention there is always passion, determination and curiosity. The creator of “g upgraded recycled graphite” is, not by chance, Alisea S.r.l Società Benefit. The Vicenza-based company – certified B-Corp awarded by the Compasso d’Oro ADI with two Honorable Mentions both linked to the use of compounds based on “g upgraded recycled graphite” – has specialized for thirty years in the recovery, regeneration and transformation of scraps, waste and industrial by-products into innovative materials with which it designs and produces design objects.