HydroGraph Clean Power Inc.

HydroGraph Clean Power Inc. is a graphene manufacturer listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the ticker HG. The company holds an exclusive worldwide license to a detonation-based graphene synthesis process patented by Kansas State University. It operates a pilot production facility in Manhattan, Kansas, is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and has announced plans for a large-scale production plant in Bellville, Texas.

History

The company's core technology originated at Kansas State University, where physicist Chris Sorensen discovered in the course of aerosol gel experiments that a controlled detonation of acetylene and oxygen inside a closed chamber produces graphene. The Kansas State University Research Foundation patented the method in 2016.

In 2017, Vancouver-based financiers Harold Davidson and Hubert Barry Hemsworth contacted Sorensen and formed a company, initially incorporated as Carbon-2D Graphene Inc., to license and commercialize the process. The company was renamed HydroGraph Clean Power Inc. in 2021 and listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange in December of that year. Its shares also trade on the OTCQB market in the United States under the ticker HGRAF.

HydroGraph built its first production facility in Manhattan, Kansas, near the university where the process was developed. In 2023 the company commissioned a commercial-scale production cell with a stated capacity of about 10 tonnes of graphene per year. It received ISO 9001:2015 certification in February 2025.

In August 2025, the company signed a lease for a 20,000-square-foot headquarters in Austin, Texas. The same month, the short-selling firm Capybara Research, whose affiliates held short positions in the stock, published a report alleging that the company's market valuation rested on paid stock promotion and that its production process would be difficult to scale. In January 2026, the company began construction of two additional Hyperion reactors, each with an expected capacity of about 10 tonnes per year. In February 2026, it announced that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had issued a TSCA Section 5(e) order covering its graphene products, and that it had obtained UK and EU REACH clearances for commercial-scale sales. In March 2026, the company closed a C$30 million financing under the Canadian listed issuer financing exemption.

The Austin headquarters opened in April 2026 and houses three of the company's Hyperion reactors for development work, with a combined capacity of about 30 tonnes per year expected from September 2026.

In July 2026, its subsidiary HydroGraph USA Inc. signed agreements with Western International Gas & Cylinders covering a ten-year acetylene supply via pipeline and a land lease for the company's first large-scale U.S. production facility, in Bellville, Texas. The arrangement, first outlined in a letter of intent in 2025, secures pipeline access to acetylene, the feedstock for the company's detonation process. The plant is planned to have an initial capacity of up to 360 tonnes of graphene per year, with a stated expansion potential above 750 tonnes.

Technology

HydroGraph produces graphene by detonating a mixture of acetylene and oxygen in a sealed chamber ignited by a spark. The company describes the output as turbostratic graphene with 99.8% carbon purity, sold under the trade names Fractal Graphene and Reactive Graphene. The same detonation approach, with methane as feedstock, can produce syngas from which hydrogen is separated, although graphene is the company's commercial focus.

The company markets its reactor design under the name Hyperion. It is certified as a Verified Graphene Producer by The Graphene Council (since renamed the Advanced Carbons Council), the third producer globally to receive the designation. Its application development work is partly based at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester. Target applications include composites, coatings, lubricants, and energy storage.

Products

The company sells graphene in three product lines. Fractal Graphene, the base product, consists of non-functionalized turbostratic nanoplatelets of three to nine layers with lateral dimensions of 20–50 nm, a specific surface area of about 200 m²/g, and a stated carbon purity of 99.8%. Reactive Graphene is a functionalized variant carrying carboxylic acid surface groups, intended for applications that require further chemical bonding, such as composites and catalysis. Fractal Graphene Paste, launched in June 2026, is a 20% aqueous dispersion of Fractal Graphene intended for direct use in water-based formulations such as concrete admixtures and coatings, and the company certifies third-party plastics compounders to process its materials into masterbatches.

In 2024, testing at Arizona State University's School of Sustainable Engineering found that mortar mixes dosed with small amounts of the company's graphene powders showed higher compressive strength and reduced porosity relative to portland cement controls, prompting trials with North American cement and concrete producers. The company's graphene has also been trialled by Hawkeye Bio in a biomedical sensor for early lung cancer detection.

Finances

As of March 2026, the company reported trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately US$91,000 against a market capitalization of roughly US$1.7 billion. A June 2026 analysis described the company as effectively pre-revenue, with a net loss of about US$7 million and a cash position of US$42.8 million, and noted that its plans depend on successful scale-up and commercial contract wins.