Monash breakthrough underpins carbon-negative chemical venture

A new climate tech start-up in the UK is building on research pioneered at Monash University highlighting the global impact of the university’s chemical engineering research.

Co-founded by Monash Engineering's Dr Rajan Lakshman, start-up COOloop has secured £150,000 in seed funding to commercialise a breakthrough process that converts captured CO₂ and renewable hydrogen into carbon-negative acetic acid, a chemical widely used in plastics, textiles, paints and food products.

The underlying technology was developed by Professor Akshat Tanksale and his research team at Monash, who created novel catalysts capable of transforming carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals, an advance that could significantly reduce emissions from the fossil-fuel-dependent chemical industry.

The collaboration between Monash researchers and industry aims to scale the technology for industrial use, demonstrating how university research can help turn carbon from a waste product into a valuable resource while accelerating the transition to net-zero chemical production.

Read more in Mirage News here.