GRAMOFON, a European project coordinated by the Spanish Plastics Technology Centre AIMPLAS, has ended after 42 months with very promising results on CO₂ capture. New materials for capturing CO₂ could be used to reduce industrial emissions and as catalysts.

New nanomaterials will enable CO₂ from industrial emissions to be captured, with improved CO₂ desorption. These materials have also proven to be useful as catalysts in the recovery of CO₂ for the synthesis of chemical products.

The project results contribute to UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 through decarbonisation, with the major advantage of doing so at a lower cost than the technologies currently in use.

During the 42-month project, innovative materials and efficient systems for capturing CO₂ from post-combustion industrial emissions were developed. In particular, materials such as modified-graphene aerogels and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have shown very good CO₂ capture capacities and greater selectivity than traditional adsorbents.

The distinctive feature of these materials is their special ability to absorb microwave radiation, which has made it possible to develop a microwave heating system to help desorb the captured CO₂ with low energy costs compared to more traditional heating options that are still widely used.

In the final stage of the project, additional favourable properties of these adsorbent materials were also found, including their catalytic activity. Their use as catalysts in the synthesis of high value-added chemical products such as fuels, alcohols, carbonates and polyurethanes will make it possible to reduce the amount of CO₂ currently generated. The knowledge gained on CO₂ adsorbents during the project presents a number of promising options for the implementation of these effective new systems as a way of significantly reducing CO₂ emissions in industrial plants.

The project boasted a budget of €4.2 million and a total of nine partners (companies, technology centres and universities). Implemented in cooperation with South Korea, it was funded by the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Coordinated by AIMPLAS, the project also involved the CNRS (France), University of Mons (Belgium), Fraunhofer ICT (Germany), Graphenea (Spain), Process Design Centre (the Netherlands), e2v (United Kingdom), MOFTech (United Kingdom), and KRICT (South Korea).