The Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday that a Canadian company will open a new commercial scale manufacturing plant in Manhattan.
HydroGraph Clean Power, Inc. will produce graphene, nanomaterial used across many industries, and hydrogen for alternative-energy fuels. The company’s CEO Stuart Jara, cited the company chose to be near its research partners at Kansas State University.
HydroGraph partnered with university researchers in 2017 to develop an exclusively licensed patented detonation process discovered by K-State’s Dr. Chris Sorensen, a Cortelyou-Rust distinguished professor. According to Jara, Sorensen’s method produces the most consistent, high-quality and cost-effective graphene on the market, with the lowest environmental footprint.
Production is scheduled to begin as early as this fall, using an existing building in Pottawatomie County. The company plans over the next five years to expand to a larger facility and create more than 100 high-paying jobs in the region.
K-State Innovation Partners and Manhattan’s Knowledge Based Economic Development (KBED), partnership facilitated the company’s manufacturing presence in the region.
