It may look like grey paint on a roll of kitchen foil but engineer Chun Hin Ng is holding a wonder material, which he hopes will revolutionise how we store energy.

When loads of electronic gizmos were recently installed inside a previously abandoned Port Melbourne factory, the neighbours in the industrial park became curious and started asking questions.

“We are working on the future of energy storage,” Dr Ng told an audience gathered at a nearby café.

Chun Hin Ng from SupraG Energy with a graphene supercapacitor. Credit:Scott McNaughton

As the world moves to an increasingly electrified future, we need new ways to store and handle electricity. Typical batteries are slow to charge and discharge, lose performance after thousands of cycles and often involve harsh acids and scarce metals such as lithium.