Year-to-date gain: 75 percent
Market cap: C$38.95 million
Share price: C$0.175

HydroGraph Clean Power produces cost-effective, high-purity graphene, hydrogen and other strategic nanomaterials.

Graphene, a pure carbon material extracted from graphite, has myriad potential applications in industries such as transport, solar cells, medicine, electronics, energy, defense and desalination. HydroGraph has an exclusive license from Kansas State University to produce graphene and hydrogen through the organization's patented detonation process.

The company's achievements through the year have had a positive impact on its share price.

In April, Hydrograph inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Khalifa University of Science and Technology’s Research and Innovation Center in Graphene and 2D Materials in the United Arab Emerits to develop and commercialize graphene applications in cement, concrete, lubricants and energy storage and composites.

That same month, the company's flagship graphene product, FGA-1, was chosen by hardware company Volfpack Energy to be the base material of its supercapacitor technology, aimed at increasing adoption of renewable energy across Asia.

The following month, HydroGraph secured another strategic MoU, this time with Gulf Cryo, which provides industrial, medical and specialty gas solutions in the Middle East and Africa. Shares of Hydrograph more than doubled during this time period to a year-to-date high of C$0.20 for the first time on May 17.

The company went on to close an oversubscribed private placement totaling C$3.6 million in mid-June.

Although Hydrograph's share price dipped back into the C$0.10 to C$0.12 range for much of the third quarter, the company had a series of news releases in the fall that pushed its value back toward its high for the year.

In late October, Hydrograph extended its nanomaterials research partnership with the University of Manchester’s Graphene Engineering Innovation Center. The following week, the company announced the partners had made an important breakthrough with the discovery that its FGA-1 graphene product was able to increase the performance of bottles with reduced use of non-recycled plastic in the global polyethylene terephthalate packaging industry.

On November 20, Hydrograph received a purchase order for research quantities of four novel graphene products from a global automotive industry customer. Automotive composites represent a significant growth market for graphene.

This news was followed soon after by the announcement of new collaborations with Volfpack Energy and NEI, a supplier of specialty materials to the battery industry.

Year-to-date gain: 13.01 percent
Market cap: C$174.83 million
Share price: C$1.65

Zentek is a technology company developing graphene-based products for commercial partners.

The cornerstone of the firm's intellectual property portfolio is its patented technology platform ZenGUARD, which has displayed 99 percent effective antimicrobial properties, significantly increasing the viral filtration efficiency for surgical masks. The company is working to incorporate this technology into HVAC systems. In addition, Zentek fully owns the rights to the Albany graphite deposit in Ontario, Canada, through its subsidiary Albany Graphite.

The company’s year-to-date share price high came early in the year, when it reached C$2.11 on January 8. Zentek shares then embarked on a slow but steady declining trend for much of the year.

This was despite positive news, including a distribution agreement with DCL Supply for ZenGuard-enhanced air filters; the granting of second US patent for the active graphene-based ingredient in its ZenGuard products; the achievement of 99.99915 percent purity for a graphite sample from the Albany graphite deposit; and the release of positive preliminary battery results, which coincided with the expansion of a research collaboration with the University of Toronto.

Zentek’s share price took a turn for the better in the fourth quarter of the year, rising as high as C$1.79 on November 18. This increase followed news of increasing demand for ZenGuard antimicrobial surgical masks following a Canada-wide sampling program among dental professionals.

Year-to-date gain: 6.25 percent
Market cap: C$14.4 million
Share price: C$0.085

Black Swan Graphene describes itself as an emerging powerhouse in the bulk graphene business.

The company is a spinout of Mason Resources (TSXV:LLG,OTCQX:MGPHF), which owns the Uatnan graphite project in Québec and holds a 39 percent stake in Black Swan. Graphite from Uatnan is used to supply Black Swan.

UK-based global chemicals manufacturer Thomas Swan & Co. holds a 15 percent interest in Black Swan, and brings a portfolio of patents and intellectual property related to graphene production. Through this partnership, Black Swan is building out a fully integrated supply chain of mine-to-graphene products.

Black Swan’s share price so far this year has benefited from the launch of a number of new graphene products, such as its GraphCore 01 family of graphene nanoplatelets products. Announced in April, these products include powders and polymer-ready masterbatches designed for the polymer industry.

Shares of Black Swan reached their highest year-to-date price of C$0.15 on June 19 after the announcement of a commercial partnership with advanced materials engineering company Graphene Composites. It will see Black Swan’s graphene used in the fabrication of GC Shield, a patented ballistic protection technology.