Promethean Particles is a UK climate tech company which specialises in producing advanced materials for carbon capture. A recent announcement from this company revealed that they have closed an £8m financing round, which was led by Mercia Ventures and Aramco Ventures.

Promethean’s main area of work focuses on manufacturing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which are a class of materials that are made up of metal ions that are connected by organic molecules. This kind of design, leads them to form a porous, lattice-like structure, which provides them with a unique architecture, giving them an impressively high surface area, along with customisable pore sizes. The benefits of this kind of structure, mean that the product is able to trap and store gases and liquids, in an efficient and effective way, whilst also being effective for applications which involve gas storage and separation, or carbon capture, or even catalysis.

This means that the new investment which was recently made to this company, will enable the company to create a scaled-up manufacturing facility, whilst also expanding the team and starting up other projects, which highlight the potential MOFs have when it comes to energy transition applications.

To help with their plan to scale-up MOF manufacturing, Promethean Particles has been focused on developing a proprietary continuous-flow reactor, which has the effect of improving the process and cost of MOF production and also increases process reliability as well as consistency. A further benefit of this technology is that whilst doing all of the actions previously mentioned, it does not compromise on any of the critical quality parameters.

At the moment, Promethean produces a variety of MOFs which are able to be used in various customer applications, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), biogas upgrading, gas separation and storage and water harvesting.

The companies that were involved in the fund raising for the project included, the Midlands Engine Investment Fund I (Equity Finance fund, managed by Foresight), the University of Nottingham, TSP Ventures, and the East Midlands Early Growth Fund (managed by the British Business Bank). Along with multiple others.

Chief executive officer of Promethean, James Stephenson, commented, “The closing of our Series A round represents a significant milestone in the company’s growth journey, and we are delighted to welcome Mercia and Aramco Ventures to the Promethean team. We are extremely grateful for the trust they have placed in us and are excited by their recognition of our business potential and the impact we can have on the world. It is increasingly evident that a viable carbon capture solution is required to help mitigate the effects of climate change. MOFs show significant promise as a technological solution and Promethean’s manufacturing technology enables their production at unprecedented scale and cost-effectiveness. I couldn’t be prouder of the Promethean team for all that they have accomplished to help make this investment a reality.”

Investment manager at Mercia Ventures, Dr Marina Fuentes, said, “Promethean Particles is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the fast-growing MOF market through their innovative manufacturing reactor technology, which addresses the bottlenecks of cost and scalability. We are thrilled to support a highly capable team and a cutting-edge technology that has been developed over 15 years and is now ripe for commercialisation at scale. We are also excited to partner with Aramco Ventures, whose strategic expertise will bring significant value to the Board.”

Head of strategic venturing at Aramco Ventures, Bruce Niven, mentioned, “MOFs are an emerging class of materials with unique properties and wide-ranging applications including several in the energy transition domain. Promethean offers new capabilities to scale manufacturing of MOFs cost-effectively, which is a critical ingredient in unlocking the potential for these materials to gain widespread acceptance.”