Smart particle could hold climate change key
Photo: Selina Ambrose, product manager at Promethean Particles, says particles have extraordinary properties
A climate tech company has won an £8m investment to mass produce tiny particles that can be “programmed” to soak up and store greenhouse gases.
Promethean Particles, in Nottingham, is working with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) – tiny nanoparticles that have extremely large internal surface areas.
One teaspoon of the super adsorbent particles contains the equivalent area of two tennis courts.
The company is hoping to use the new financing, which has been led by Mercia Ventures and Aramco Ventures, to build a bigger manufacturing facility and expand its team.
It is also aiming to drive down the price of MOFs from tens of thousands of pounds to just £25 per kilo.
The key to reducing the price and scaling up production would be to make the nanoparticles from cheap, widely available metals such as zinc and magnesium.
James Stephenson, chief executive officer (CEO) of Promethean, said: “MOFs are an incredible class of materials that have shown all kinds of potential in lots of applications.”
Their internal surfaces can be lab-engineered to become “sticky” for different gases.
Out in the real world, the nanoparticles can act as both mini-sponges and mini-sieves, able to both separate and store large volumes of different gases.
These properties could be used to reduce the climate impact of producing cement, metals and energy, which continue to emit huge quantities of greenhouse gases.
MOF particles from Promethean are already being used in a prototype carbon capture unit at Drax power station in Yorkshire.
