LONDON, UK: Directa Plus and its partner Iterchimica have announce the world’s first trial of graphene enhanced asphalt at an international airport.

The six month trial will take place at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on taxiway Alpha Alpha, a high traffic taxiway used for class E and F intercontinental aircraft such as Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s.  Rome Fiumicino Airport (also known as Rome Leonardo da Vinci Airport) is Italy’s busiest airport with some 43 million passengers handled in 2018, of which 31.5 million originated from abroad. Total aircraft movements for 2018 amounted to 307,736.

Directa is a producer and supplier of graphene-based products for use in consumer and industrial markets. Iterchimica is an Italian based world leader in products that enhance asphalt performance,

The project will use the asphalt additive Gipave, developed by Directa Plus and Iterchimica, containing the Company’s G+ graphene and will be in collaboration with G.ECO S.r.l., part of Italy’s largest multi-utility company Gruppo A2A, and the University of Milan-Bicocca.

Gipave is the result of a three-year research programme with a patent filed in 2017.  In an initial trial in Italy, Gipave was confirmed as providing significant benefits compared to traditional asphalt in all areas tested: service life, resistance to the passage of vehicles, resistance to deformation and permanent plastic deformation.  In addition, once laid, asphalt with Gipave can be 100 per cent recycled, which can reduce the extraction of new materials from quarries and first-use bitumen.  Gipave is currently being tested in the UK in Oxfordshire with the co-operation of Oxfordshire County Council and the prime contractor, Skanska AB.

Commenting, Giulio Cesareo, Founder and CEO of Directa Plus, said: “The Gipave trial at Fiumicino airport potentially opens a large new market for us.  Taxiways are high traffic, high stress areas and we hope to demonstrate that the use of a graphene-based additive will improve performance, life and sustainability.”

“Gipave is another example of our strategy to offer value-added solutions to existing markets, rather than waiting for future graphene markets to develop over what could well be the long term.”

Federica Giannattasio, Iterchimica CEO, added: “Gipave is our latest patented innovation, created through collaboration with G.Eco (part of Gruppo A2A), Milano Bicocca University and Directa Plus. This is world leading Italian technology to create high-tech (graphene), green (recycled plastics, milled and reusable pavements) and highly resistant road surfaces. We believe that Gipave will also be a successful technological innovation for both maintenance and new works in airports, providing significant environmental and financial benefits.”