One of the biggest challenges in realising carbon circularity is the high cost of capturing CO2. Traditionally, captured CO2 has been converted into low-value chemicals such as green methanol. In our collaboration with the University of Cambridge, we aim to make carbon-circular chemical production more economical by upcycling green methanol into more valuable chemicals used in cosmetics, pharma, or chemical production. To achieve this goal, we engineer enzymes and nanoparticle-inspired enzyme mimics within compact, continuous-flow reactors. We also model the flow reactors with computational fluid dyanmics calculations and develop sensors to monitor the process efficiency. Our approach is designed to be efficient, scalable, and environmentally friendly. Our ultimate target is a wide adoption of CO2 upcycling by chemical companies, a crucial step towards achieving net zero.
Our research is supported by the EPSRC Prosperity Partnership (UKRI606). The Partnership is a collaboration with the Bio Nano Engineering group of Prof Ljiljana Fruk and the Open Bioeconomy Lab of Prof Jenny Molloy from the University of Cambridge.
Please reach out if you are interested in collaborating or talking about our research.
Further reading:
UK businesses and academia partner up in cutting-edge research – UKRI
