GEELONG’S $900K A KILO SUPER SUBSTANCE:

Super future substance to go into production at Deakin

ONE of the strongest and most expensive fibres in the world is expected to start being produced in commercial quantities in Geelong within weeks.

The world breakthrough in production of the ultralight, super strong, heat-resistant fibres with remarkable electrical conductivity is expected to lead to revolutionary applications across a raft of industries, including aviation, medicine, defence and mining.

A production plant to create boron nitride nanotubes (BNNT) super fibres is in the final stages of testing at Deakin University’s Waurn Ponds campus.

Previously created by the gram, one report puts the price of BNNT at upwards of $900,000 a kilogram.

The project is being developed by BNNT Technology, a joint venture involving Deakin University interests and the PPK Group, a listed mining equipment investment company that purchased a 50 per cent share in BNNT Technology earlier this year, sending its share price skyrocketing.

The PPK Group has said BNNT fibres, vastly stronger than steel and as light as carbon fibre, could be used in underground drilling and methane gas extraction by strengthening equipment and improving battery technology.

In a report to the ASX, BNNT’s chief technical officer, Dr Luhua Li, said the production plant at Deakin’s ManuFutures building was operational.

The first product could be available as early as the end of this month.

It is just more than two years since Deakin researchers at the Institute of Frontier Materials announced a world first 3D printing of a boron nitride nanotube/titanium composite.

BNNT was discovered about 20 years ago by Nobel Prize winner Professor Richard Smalley who said “the nanotube was the strongest fibre that you can make out of anything, ever”.

WE EXPECT THE FIRST BNNT PRODUCT WILL BE PRODUCED IN OUR NEW FURNACE BY THE END OF SEPTEMBER TO EARLY OCTOBER, AT WHICH POINT WE COULD FOCUS ON RAMPING UP VOLUMES TOWARDS THE END OF THE YEAR.

DR LUHUA LI ON THE NANOTUBES (PICTURED LEFT)