Carbon Capture & Utilization via MES
Inventive Leap supported the commercialisation planning of a CO₂-to-chemicals technology, uncovering high-value wastewater treatment applications and enabling follow-on funding.
Client
University of Galway
Sector
University
Publication Date
26 de enero de 2026
Opportunity
As society grapples with the impact of climate change, the CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage) sector is experiencing significant growth as both governments and industry look for solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Rather than simply sequester CO2 underground, the Utilisation side of the industry seeks to create products from waste Co2. Annual revenues from products made from captured carbon are expected to increase from $12 billion per year in 2022 to $245 billion per year by 2045, representing an annual growth rate exceeding 15%.
A new process developed by Professor Pau Farras and his team seeks to use a process called MES (Microbial Electrosynthesis) to convert C02 into Acetic Acid. Critically, this technology has been shown to work with impure forms of C02 enabling substantial cost savings by elimination of various pre-treatment steps and other products outside of Acetic Acid (for example Methane) are also in scope by altering the microbial colony used.
Background
Approach
Inventive Leap was retained as part of an Enterprise Ireland funded project to put together a Preliminary Commercialisation Plan assessing a number of Go to Market options & modelling the underlying techno unit economics. This project also included significant market outreach to customers in the CCUS, Acetic Acid, Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Biogas & Wastewater treatment sectors.
This project uncovered a particularly high value application of the core technology in the waste-water treatment sector and the Research Team was awarded follow-on commercialisation funding which will allow the team to assess the commercial feasibility of productising the technology for this application.