CGF and Barclays to fund CCUS start-up company MOF Technologies

Clean Growth Fund and Barclays, via their Sustainable Impact Capital programme, have invested in MOF Technologies (MOF Tech) as part of their Series A funding round. An existing investor has also invested in the company at this time.

A spin-out from Queen’s University Belfast, MOF Tech is a Northern Ireland-based company that has developed an energy efficient carbon capture solution to reduce harmful emissions from cement works, steel works, or energy-from-waste plants. It has world-leading expertise in a class of nanomaterials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). The funding will enable MOF Tech to further develop its technology and scale its business. 

MOFs are crystalline, sponge-like materials that can store, separate and capture targeted gases such as CO₂. Moreover, the technology uses 80 per cent less energy than traditional CO₂ capture technologies such as amine scrubbing. Importantly, the company can manufacture the MOFs on an industrial scale in an environmentally friendly way that is both inexpensive and scalable.  

MOF Tech has attracted strong commercial interest in its work. In May 2022 it announced that it would start work on a trial involving three of the world’s major cement companies including, Heidelberg Materials, Cementir Holding and Buzzi Unicem, as part of the Global Cement and Concrete Association’s Innovandi ‘Open Challenge’ to achieve net zero concrete by 2050.

Conor Hamill, co-CEO at MOF Technologies, said: “I’m delighted that Clean Growth Fund and Barclays have chosen to invest in our company. The willingness of these two leading funders in cleantech reinforces our own confidence in our work and gives us scope to expand our operations in Belfast and secure new business opportunities. With our cost-competitive end of pipe system, we can make commercial carbon capture a reality and a key part of the climate solution.” 

Stephen Price, investment director at Clean Growth Fund, said: “ With our investment, alongside the commercialisation support that we offer to all of the companies in our investment portfolio, I’m confident that MOF Tech can quickly become a sought-after technology provider to heavy industries across the world who need to decarbonise as a matter of urgency.”

Clean Growth Fund and Barclays invest GBP4.4m (EUR5.03m) in Belfast’s

MOF Technologies as part of Series A funding round