XG Sciences has collaborated with Niagara Bottling to promote grapheme enhanced PET innovations in the food and beverage packaging industry.

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Image: XG Sciences and Niagara Bottling have collaborated to promote grapheme enhanced PET innovations. Photo: courtesy of Willfried Wende from Pixabay.

The intellectual property licence, joint development and commercialisation agreement will offer XG Sciences with an exclusive licence to Niagara’s patents and proprietary know-how related to the use of graphene nanoplatelets in PET in certain bottle applications.

XG Sciences chief commercial officer Bamidele Ali said: “We are excited about the opportunities that partnering with an industry leader like Niagara Bottling will bring to the packaging industry.

“XGPET becomes the next innovative graphene enhanced material within our portfolio of high-performance composites, intended to solve major industry challenges, enable new products designs and accelerate a push towards more sustainable products.”

As part of the deal, Niagara will provide field engineering support to XGS for the installation of products into the manufacturing lines for new customers, helping to reduce the manufacturer’s time to market.

The agreement will facilitate XGS to access a major IP portfolio relating to optimising dispersions of graphene nanoplatelets in PET. It will also enable XGS to market XGPET masterbatch pellets to global packaging companies within the next six to 12 months.

According to XG Sciences, the partnership will provide multiple benefits to the beverage bottle and packaging industry.

When used in packaging production of the advanced material, marketed under the brand XGPET, is said to demonstrate improved physical strength, advanced product designs and processing benefits and potential reductions in the use of PET for given bottle designs.

Niagara Bottling chief scientist Dr Jay Hanan said: “For years we have used our expertise to innovate for Niagara Bottling’s customers. In this partnership with XG Sciences we are now advancing those innovations to the broader packaging industry.

“We are excited to further enable our industry to utilize graphene to create more efficiently produced and user-friendly packaging.”

XG Sciences is specialised in using graphene nanoplatelets to formulate advanced materials for products across multiple industries.

Based in Ontario, California, Niagara Bottling produces a variety of beverages such as bottled water, teas, sports drinks, vitamin water and sparkling water. It operates bottling facilities across the US and Mexico.