FluoroCapture

FluoroCapture is a project currently underway in Tom Hooper’s research group at UCD in collaboration with Dr Ioscani Jimenez del Val from UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering

This project is part of the

Science Foundation Ireland National Challenge Fund – 2050 Challenge

Fluorinated gas (F-gas) emissions are a small but significant contributor to global warming. Our goal is to prevent emission of fluorinated gases by showing they can be converted to valuable fluorinated chemical building blocks for use in industry, thereby promoting and incentivising their recovery and recycling. We will develop catalytic processes to upgrade these harmful chemicals in a sustainable manner so they can be used in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals etc. We aim to do that by using reactive phosphorus-based catalysts to activate and functionalise F-gases with high global warming potential and explore the scale-up of these reactions to maximise output and minimise environmental impact. This project represents a convergence of both emerging and more established concepts from the fields of synthetic chemistry and chemical engineering.

The project began in January 2023 and we are in the process of stakeholder engagement and are eager to speak with anyone engaged with the F-gas industry at any level. Please contact us via our FluoroCapture LinkedIn page or via the email below if you would be happy to share your experience with us.