Upcycling is a significant concept to bring an end to the life cycle of materials and open various new application routes for nanomaterial production from waste sources. The present work provides an insight into the importance of green synthesis methods in graphene nanomaterials synthesis by combining recycling and upcycling technologies. We developed a scalable technology to produce graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) from recovered carbon black obtained from the pyrolysis of end-of-life tires by using recycling and upcycling technology. With this developed technology, a pilot production line with the capacity of 500 kg/month in Nanografen Co (start-up company of Sabancı University) was established to initiate the industrialization of graphene in thermoplastic sector. Nanografen becomes an official supplier of Renault together with Ravago and they developed OEM certified masterbatch to reduce glass fiber and mineral amount in polypropylene and polyamide based interior and exterior parts. Consequently, this multidisciplinary work ensures significant innovation potential of graphene in the field of thermoplastic-based composites and initiates the mass production by lowering cost from raw material to the selected part and overcomes the needs by addressing greenhouse gas emissions with sustainable designs by integrated manufacturing technologies of injection, overmoulding, and joining techniques. To conclude, Nanografen’s novel and sustainable solution supporting by appliying eco-efficient manufacturing technologies and using Life Cycle Assessment provides CO2 emission reduction of at least 10% in each application by adopting eco-design and a circular economy approach.

Figure 1: Nanografen’s technology