Prime, from what I understand the flake size is only an...

Prime, from what I understand the flake size is only an important factor in natural graphite due the the impact on yield as the graphite requires secondary processing (milling and shaping). With the HZR process the graphite is produced highly crystalline, spherical and of a size suited for battery applications (10-50um)which obviously reduces the secondary processing required. The other thing that is positively impacted is the yield, other spherical graphite production methods lose a reasonable percentage during processing. The purity however may start slightly behind with 96% being the highest I have read about therefore if acid purification is required a few points are lost here. The team behind the tech are currently working to establish the impact of the residual iron and believe that due to the way it is locked up within the structure that it could possibly improve the electrical properties? (otherwise it would simply be removed)

As for the graphite being a byproduct this is correct, the process is thought to be economic even if the graphite were to be thrown away. The graphite is however by weight the majority leader by roughly 3:1. The interesting thing is that the HZR process is economic on either product so obviously very lucrative if both products are able to be commercialized.

It's yet to be scaled up so still a possibility that it never gets to commercialization but if it does then I don't think there will be any graphite producers that can compete.