Nuada has successfully completed the trial of its second pilot plant, Nuada Scout, at the Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) at the University of Sheffield. The EIC is host to the IFRF and is the primary Preferred Research Partner (PRP) in the IFRF PRP network. As a reminder, IFRF member and partner organisation can gain access to the test facilities and expertise of the seven IFRF PRP organisations, for commercial and/or pre-competitive R&D projects.  

Designed, built and commissioned in under a year, the Nuada industrial pilot plant has been capturing CO2 from biomass-derived flue gases at pilot scale, delivering 1 tCO2/day with high purity and stable performance.

Nuada has developed a solution to capture industrial carbon emissions, targeting sectors such as cement, lime, and waste-to-energy. Compared to traditional methods, Nuada’s technology is described as being more efficient and cost-effective, requiring 90% less energy than conventional approaches. The system passes industrial emissions through a sponge-like metal-organic framework (MOF) sorbent material, which selectively adsorbs CO2 molecules. A vacuum process is then used to extract the captured CO2, without the need for large-scale chemical plants or complex infrastructure. The Nuada approach has the potential to eliminate the need for large chemical processing systems, offering a compact, easy-to-integrate and lower-energy solution suitable for widespread industrial deployment.

The pilot forms part of a project awarded funding via the CCUS Innovation 2.0 programme, as part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

Key outcomes from the Nuada Scout pilot include:

• Capture of 1 tCO2/day from energy-from-waste and biomass flue gas
• Stable MOF-VPSA(vacuum pressure swing absorption) operation demonstrated at pilot scale
• Validation of platform performance across both biomass and cement applications