UKCCSRC Knowledge Exchange Conference 2025 – Parallel 1a: CO2 Capture 2 (ECR Meeting Fund)

The global drive towards net-zero emissions is pushing innovation in carbon capture technologies, and this year’s UKCCSRC Knowledge Exchange Conference showcased two remarkable approaches in “Parallel Session 1a: CO₂ Capture”. The session featured cutting-edge research on optimising polymeric membrane systems for enhanced carbon capture performance, presented by Pierre Dieudonné, from the University of Edinburgh, alongside an industrial perspective on scaling Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for carbon capture, delivered by Dr. Chitrakshi Goel, from Promethean Particles.

Together, these talks highlighted both the academic and industrial frontiers of CO₂ capture: from developing flexible optimisation frameworks to fine-tune membrane parameters, to demonstrating large-scale MOF production and deployment for efficient and cost-effective carbon capture. This session provided valuable insights into how innovative materials and system design can accelerate the transition towards cleaner energy systems.

Optimising of Polymeric Membrane Systems for Innovative Carbon Capture processes

Pierre Dieudonné presented his work on the optimisation of polymeric membrane systems for innovative carbon capture processes, highlighting how advances in materials, modelling and optimisation frameworks are shaping the future of membrane-based CO₂ separation. Membranes have emerged as a promising alternative to conventional solvent-based capture technologies. They are compact, modular and energy efficient. However, the industrial application is limited by the material performance trade-off between selectivity and productivity. Pierre highlighted how the temperature can dramatically affect membrane performance and modifies their separation properties . This is because temperature strongly affects selectivity and flux, the two main performance indicators for membranes. For instance, lower operating temperatures tend to increase CO₂ selectivity, but at the expense of flux (recovery). Balancing these two is essential.

To address this, an isothermal hollow fibre membrane model was implemented in Python, enabling accurate mass and momentum balances. This model can simulate both co-current and counter-current flows, offering flexibility in design. The model is linked with Honeywell’s UniSim Design Suite via an open-access connector, allowing integration of membrane modules with broader process simulations, thermodynamics and costing.

Their framework doesn’t just test technical performance, it also checks if the design makes economic sense, from annual costs to carbon taxes. Through iterative cycles, fixing process parameters, running simulations, gathering performance indicators and assessing feasibility, the framework identifies the best balance of efficiency and cost.

Pierre concluded that this flexible framework is widely applicable to any membrane-based process. Integrating operating temperature as a novel optimisation variable opens up new pathways, particularly when exploring sub-ambient operation. While such conditions raise cooling requirements, they could unlock performance gains for certain configurations and materials. Looking ahead, future work will explore hybrid membrane processes and new material classes at different stages of technological readiness.

This research shows that polymeric membranes, when carefully optimised, hold strong promise as part of innovative CCS strategies, contributing to a more sustainable and scalable approach to carbon capture.

Unleashing the Potential of Metal-organic Frameworks (MOFs) for Carbon Capture Through Scalable MOF Manufacture

In the same session, Dr. Chitrakshi Goel delivered an industrial perspective on unleashing the potential of MOFs (metal-organic frameworks) for carbon capture through scalable manufacturing. Representing Promethean Particles, Dr. Goel explained how advanced materials can transform the efficiency and scalability of CO₂ capture technologies.

Dr. Goel opened by reminding us why carbon capture is so critical, global emissions must fall fast, highlighting IPCC findings that global emissions must fall by 45% by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 °C. Conventional technologies, particularly amine-based systems, are widely deployed but face critical challenges including high energy penalties, environmental concerns and prohibitive costs. Against this backdrop, MOFs (Metal-Organic Frameworks) emerge as highly promising alternatives due to their tunable porosity, high selectivity and energy efficiency.

A key focus of the talk was Promethean Particles’ pioneering efforts to move MOFs from the lab to industrial-scale production. Using proprietary continuous-flow reactor technology, the company has achieved scalable and reproducible MOF synthesis, enabling production capacities exceeding 100 kg with consistent quality. This capability directly addresses one of the main barriers that has historically limited MOF adoption, the difficulty of translating laboratory success into commercial deployment.

Importantly, Dr. Goel shared a techno-economic comparison of MOFs versus amine-based CCS. Results showed that MOF-based systems significantly reduce the energy penalty to 0.65 GJ/tCO₂ compared to 4.75 GJ/tCO₂ for amines and lower operating costs, without compromising capture efficiency. In fact, the projected cost of CO₂ capture using MOFs was estimated at $31 per tonne over 20 years, compared with $101 per tonne for conventional amine processes, a striking improvement in economic feasibility.  Pilot-scale demonstrations further reinforced the potential of MOFs, with units operating under real industrial conditions and achieving capture rates of 0.5–1.0 tonnes per day. These outcomes, particularly from the MONET project, mark important progress toward bridging the gap between innovation and commercial deployment.

Together, these talks showed how materials innovation and smart system design can support research towards achieving net-zero emissions.