Saarbrücken/Essen, Germany. – Apr. 02, 2008 – ItN Nanovation AG (ISIN DE000A0JL461), a portfolio company of Nanostart AG, and RWE Power AG, a subsidiary of RWE AG, have signed a far-reaching cooperation agreement which will provide the basis for the accelerated introduction of the Nanocomp Powerplant (PP) product line from ItN Nanovation into RWE Power facilities.

The agreement will initially focus on lignite-fired power plants operated by RWE. Under the terms of the contract, the partners will jointly intensify and coordinate product testing and further application development in these facilities. This will both accelerate the process of product fine-tuning as well as provide valuable results for the subsequent use of Nanocomp PP in other applications.

Nanocomp Powerplant, a high-performance ceramic coating, provides effective protection for technical components in power plants from soot and contaminants as well as from wear due to oxidation or abrasion. The use of Nanocomp PP thus reduces maintenance costs and increases the productivity of power facilities.  The global market for protective coatings in fossil fuel-fired power plants is estimated by ItN Nanovation at over EUR 1 billion.

Dr. Tillmann C. Lauk, CEO of ItN Nanovation AG, said, “We are very much looking forward to working together with RWE, and in fact this cooperation agreement underscores the tremendous customer benefits which our products are capable of yielding. This agreement is clear proof for us that the market has very high expectations for the successful roll-out of our high-performance coatings, and we must live up to these. It is our declared goal to expand Nanocomp PP to cover as many applications as possible so that we can achieve comprehensive coverage across all fossil fuel-fired power plants.”

“The cooperation agreement with RWE Power, a division of the largest German energy provider RWE, is a decisive step for our portfolio company ItN Nanovation AG. Nanocomp PP is another highly promising product from the ItN platform technology which defines new standards in the area of cleantech,” added Marco Beckmann, CEO of Nanostart AG.

Based on very positive results from the tests already completed, RWE Power has high expectations for the Nanocomp Powerplant product line. With further application development, the introduction of this new technology into RWE Power’s base of power plants promises to significantly reduce failures and downtime resulting from deposits of soot and contaminants. This will have the effect of reducing ongoing maintenance costs at these plants while further increasing their already high operational availability. The new technology is expected to play an important role in improving the future efficiency of power generation from fossil fuels.

Media contact:

Nanostart AG
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