OREANDA-NEWS. May 23, 2011. RUSNANO acquires up to 29.9% equity share in ItN Nanovation AG, a German public company, for approximately €16 million. RUSNANO’s investments will support company’s development in Germany and its expected expansion to Russia. A future Russian production site could specialize in manufacturing nanoceramic coatings for energy sector and foundries.

Current major shareholders of ItN Nanovation - German venture capital fund Nanostart AG and other institutional and private investors - have invested over €50 million in the company since its foundation.

ItN Nanovation AG currently produces several innovative products:

nanoceramic coatings for power plants;

nanoceramic coatings for foundries;

membrane filters based on nanoceramic coatings;

mobile units for waste water treatment.

Nanocomp Powerplant coatings are sprayed on the equipment of power plants that mainly operate on coal and lignite. The coatings prevent slagging, improve heat exchangers cleaning, and reduce depreciation and corrosion. They significantly reduce operational costs due to shorter power plant’s maintenance time.

Nanocomp Metcast coatings are used in the metallurgical industry, specifically in primary aluminum and aluminum alloy production. Coatings are sprayed on the surface of open moulds to extend their exposure time, as well as to ease extraction of ingots. The lifetime of foundry equipment increases, resulting in shorter overall maintenance time, reduced product’s makespan, and higher efficiency of the foundries. Nanocomp Metcast coatings are also used for low pressure and gravity die casting, i.e. in the automotive industry.

Parties agreed that during the first stage of the partnership they would promote and market ItN Nanovation’s products in Russia and CIS, whereas a second stage may be considered as an expansion phase with building of a factory in Russia.

“ItN Nanovation is a leader in the development of industrial nanotechnology and nano-enabled products based on zirconium oxide, aluminum oxide and titanium oxide. Its state-of-the-art technology allows achieving significant increase in cost efficiency in power and metallurgical sectors” commented RUSNANO Managing Director Alexander Kondrashov.