A FAMILY-OWNED chemical firm says it has started a pilot project to make a revolutionary product.

Thomas Swan and Co, in Consett, County Durham, says it has scaled up its Elicarb graphene plant.

Bosses say the site is capable of making 1kg of graphene every day and will support the company’s work on graphene in customer’s products.

Graphene is an ultra-light carbon material, which experts say could support the weight of a ten-tonne truck, despite being as thin as a human hair, and conduct electricity a million times better than copper.

Andy Goodwin, Thomas Swan’s commercial director in its advanced materials division, said: “This is an exciting time for our business as interest in research and development quantities of Elicarb products has been high.

“We now have the ability to provide kilogram quantities and work more closely with our customers on development of graphene technologies.

“The pilot line also gives us the opportunity to optimise our unit operations for our next scale-up step, which we are already planning.”

Earlier this year, The Northern Echo reported how Thomas Swan was bringing forward plans to scale up production after experiencing high commercial demand.

Harry Swan, managing director, added: “I’m delighted with the progress made by our process technology team to deliver this pilot plant.

“It has been a very successful project for our research and development team, contractors and site services, and positions us as a leading graphene supplier.”

Thomas Swan, which began life in 1926 converting steel industry slag waste into road surfacing material, previously signed a £625,000 four-year deal with Trinity College Dublin to develop a process for making graphene on an industrial scale.