A Gloucestershire-based firm at the forefront of the graphene revolution is racing ahead with its latest application.

Versarien plc, based at Longhope, is trialling its graphene-based product Nanene with bicycle lubricants. But there could be more wide-ranging industrial applications in future.

Dr Stephen Hodge, chief technology officer at Versarien plc, spoke to Punchline editor Mark Owen about the exciting new developments.

Dr Hodge said: "What we've done recently is take our product Nanene, which is verified by the Graphene Council in the US and is one of the only verified graphene products on the market. So our customers in the US, Silca, have added graphene to their lubricant and made it incredibly better. 

"It's lasting longer so cyclists can now go up to about 800km without changing the lubricant and it's also improving that power efficiency so cyclists can go further and faster.

"At the moment Silca is primarily for cyclists' products but there are a whole host of other applications where we use lubricants on a daily basis in engines and in factory machinery so graphene can play a key role in improving the lubrication properties but also the thermal properties of these lubricants so things are longer lasting and they need less maintenance and servicing.

"We've got a number of projects on the go with different customers. This first one is with cycling lubricants but we've got further projects in the pipeline. We are aiming to do all sorts of automotive, aerospace and other factory machinery lubricants."

Dr Hodge said he had "no idea" how much it would be worth to Versarien, but he added: "It''s a high value project so most likely it's going to be taken up by some of the big cycling teams but we're looking to put lubricants into general automotive lubricants and oils. That's a huge volume market and it could be very lucrative for Versarien."