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SPARC TECHNOLOGIES LTD (SPN) - How Graphene Additives And Novel Hydrogen Tech Could Shift Heavy Industry

• Andrew Musgrave

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Corrosion, costs, and clean energy collide as we sit down with Nick O’Loughlin, Managing Director of Sparc Technologies, to unpack a focused plan for real-world impact. We trace how a graphene-based additive called ecosparc® aims to make protective coatings tougher for critical steel assets, and why a pilot plant north of Adelaide could change the economics of green hydrogen by using light, not large amounts of electricity.

First, we dig into the coatings story. ecosparc® targets measurable gains in barrier performance, adhesion, and durability, designed to slot into existing formulations used on bridges, mining gear, and oil and gas infrastructure. Nick shares why trials with BHP Mitsubishi Alliance and the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse matter, and how recognition alongside Aramco at the Middle East Corrosion Conference signals technical credibility at the highest level. With a consolidated market of global coating manufacturers, Sparc is pursuing commercial agreements that could accelerate deployment once specifications are met. The goal: reach commercialisation by FY26 and scale through partners with worldwide reach.

Then we pivot to energy innovation through the Sparc Hydrogen joint venture with Fortescue and the University of Adelaide. The Roseworthy pilot is built and moving through commissioning to demonstrate photocatalytic water splitting—hydrogen production driven by light-activated catalysts with minimal electricity input. Nick explains how this approach addresses a core barrier in electrolysis economics, what success at pilot scale would mean for technology readiness, and how a strong data set could unlock global interest. Along the way, we talk about the complementary nature of these two bets: near-term revenue potential from coatings and a bold push in next-gen hydrogen.

If you’re tracking graphene in coatings, green hydrogen technologies, or ASX innovation stories, this conversation delivers clear milestones, partner validation, and timelines to watch. Subscribe, share with a colleague who lives in materials or energy, and leave a quick review with the question you want answered next.

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome to another episode of ASX Briefs, where we bring you insights from Australia's top listed companies. And today we welcome back Nick O'Loughlin, the Managing Director of Sparc Technologies Limited. Sparc Technologies is an Australian technology company focused on developing and commercialising innovations that improve sustainability and performance across global industries. Nick, great to have you with me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast.

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Thanks for having me, Andrew.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Nick, for listeners that may not know Sparc that well, can you start by giving a quick overview of the business today?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Yeah, sure. So, Sparc is a technology business of two halves, really. We have two key areas that we focus on. The first is in developing performance additives for the coatings industry, and we utilize the power of a material called graphene within those additives. The second is being a key partner in the Sparc Hydrogen joint venture, which is developing green hydrogen technology alongside Fortescue as our other commercial partner and the University of Adelaide there. And we're progressing well on that front as well.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, now Sparc earlier this year announced a trial of ecosparc® enhanced coatings with BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, and more recently a collaboration with Dulux Australia on the Cape Jaffa Lighthouse. So, what makes these trials particularly significant for the company?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Yes, so ecosparc® is our flagship graphene-based additive, which, as I mentioned, is a performance booster for protective coatings, which are effectively the paints used on steel infrastructure around Australia and the world, including Sydney Harbour Bridge, mining infrastructure, oil and gas infrastructure, and the like. And our go-to-market strategy with that graphene-based additive product has been to partner with and collaborate with both coatings manufacturers who will be the ultimate purchasers of our additive, along with key asset owners who are the ultimate end users of the protective coatings. So, you've mentioned Dulux there, which is obviously a coatings company that we're working with, and also BHP Mitsubishi Alliance, which is an example of an asset owner where we are trialling product at the moment.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Sparc's GM of Graphene, Dr. Dennis Wright, together with collaborators at Aramco, just won best paper at the Middle East Corrosion Conference. So, what does this recognition say about the quality of your graphene work and the momentum building behind ecosparc®?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Yes, so this is a relatively recent development. The conference was last week, and it was very pleasing that we firstly partnered with Aramco's head of their head of coatings committee at Aramco in authoring a paper for that conference. And not only that, that paper won the best paper out of over 300 that were presented at that conference, which was in Saudi Arabia. So, I guess the partnership with Aramco there is an example of what I just mentioned in terms of working with key end users of the protective coatings. And Aramco, not many get bigger in that space. So that's really feeds into our go-to-market strategy and has been really important in helping pull along and accelerate some of the work that we're doing with the coatings manufacturers to get the ecosparc® enhanced coatings to market.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and graphene has been talked about for more than a decade, but only now seems to be getting closer to real commercial deployment. So, from your perspective, what has changed in the graphene space and where does ecosparc® fit into the broader story?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Yeah, so we are seeing now a number of companies, credible companies, developing either graphene additives or graphene powders and utilizing them for industrial use cases, which is very pleasing. For listeners who are not aware, graphene is a material, it's a pure carbon material. It's in a hexagonal lattice structure, which makes it a 2D structure, which makes it extremely strong and flexible, very high surface area, and it has a number of other properties, including conductivity, which can be utilized to improve the performance of industrial materials, light coatings, but also people are working in cement, semiconductor applications, batteries are you know, utilizing graphene and what we're seeing more recently is, as I said, a few companies starting to really show commercial progress. It's been a bit of a long journey for the industry, partly because graphene is not a commodity. It's not a simple material, it's actually a very complex one. And what Spark has focused on over the last five years is really honing in on working with the right type of graphene that works in protective coatings, and there's only a select few, and then developing an additive that can incorporate that graphene, which is easily usable by the coatings industry. So, there's two key components there, and ecosparc® is, we believe, the market leading additive in the protective coatings industry utilizing graphene and I think we've got a jump start of at least a few years on the competition there.

 

 

 

Andrew Musgrave

Now you've pointed to FY26 as the year ecosparc® is commercialized. So, what gives you confidence in this time frame?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

So, we've touched on the highly credentialed partners that we're working with publicly. There's even many more uh under NDA who we collaborate with both on the coatings manufacturing side and also on the asset owner side. And all of that work is starting to, I guess, come to a head and to fruition from Sparc’s perspective to the point where we are in commercial discussions with several parties around the use of our additive. And I'm confident that we will, through those discussions, see the additive reach the market in the form of an ecosparc® enhanced product or products within the near future. And one of the good things about the coatings market and the protected coatings market in particular is that it's quite consolidated. And with the partners that we are talking about in confidentiality here, they are large players that can have a global reach and ultimately see strong ramp-ups of use of our product in into their products as the market develops for this additive.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, now switching tack to your work in developing novel green hydrogen production technology with Fortescue and the University of Adelaide. How is the pilot plant at Roseworthy in South Australia progressing? And what are the key outputs that you were expecting from this facility?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Yeah, thanks, Andrew. So, this is there's the second part of our business that I mentioned at the top, and this relates to the Sparc Hydrogen joint venture, which is unrelated to the work we are doing in graphene and protective coatings. So we've been on a journey with Fortescue over almost four years developing  technology that was originally from the University of Adelaide, and they remain a key partner and shareholder within the joint venture, through to the point now where we are and have completed construction of a pilot plant which is utilizing the photocatalytic water splitting technology which we have secured IP over at the Roseworthy campus, which is about 50 kilometres north of Adelaide. So, we completed construction in recent weeks, and the team are putting the final touches on commissioning and doing all the checks and balances with hydrogen production to commence, I would expect in the in the next week or two, which is a really significant milestone. It not only takes us up the technology readiness curve, but it also is being watched by a number of people in the industry, given its novelty, it does not, the technology does not use significant amounts of electricity to produce hydrogen, which has been a key barrier to the electrolysis space. and we're leaders in this particular field, which is effectively photocatalytic or called photocatalytic water splitting. So, if we can demonstrate it successfully at Roseworthy, then we've got a really strong platform to expand what we're doing more from a global perspective and garner increasing interest in what is, as I said, novel and leading technology development alongside Fortescue.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, now finally, looking ahead, what are some of the catalysts investors should keep an eye out for over the next 12 months?

 

Nick O'Loughlin

So, we've touched on a couple there. I think in the near term, we should expect you know production from Roseworthy, which will be a first of its kind, and as I said, a really strong milestone for the Spark Hydrant business. On the protected coatings and graphene-based additive side, it really comes down to commercialising the product. And as I mentioned, we are advancing negotiations there with coatings manufacturers who can get the product to market. And I'm confident that we will get a commercialization deal, if not this year, then early next. So, I think that'll be a real step change for the business, transitioning us from a research and development company um to something that's commercial and validated in the market and also will provide really strong credibility and validation of the work that we've done in that space over a long period of time.

 

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, Nick. Well, it's been great to catch up again, so thanks for your time, and we look forward to further updates from Sparc Technologies in the upcoming months.

 

Nick O'Loughlin

Many thanks, Andrew.

 

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.