Cagecapture Limited

Company description

CageCapture develops Nano-cage technology, that aims to capture pollutant substances from the atmosphere.

Formaldehyde is often released as a pollutant from building materials such as paint and plasterboard, as well as many other household products. It is believed to cause various health problems and is classified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by WHO. The current leading technology for removing formaldehyde is activated carbon adsorption, which has low capture capacity and poor selectivity. A new cage molecule solid was designed and synthesised, that act like a 'cage prison' and can capture low concentration pollutants using a combination of chemical and physical adsorption. The patented technology has been proven to efficiently capture the most common indoor air pollutant, formaldehyde, at both high and low levels and even in humid conditions. CageCapture Ltd (CCL, https://cagecapture.com/), co-founded by the inventors, was formed in December 2019 to commercialise this new cage-based material. This technology was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's First Prize in their 2016 Emerging Technologies Competition. In 2019, CageCapture Ltd has been awarded a total of £298,754 funding via Innovate UK with matched funding from the University's Enterprise Investment Fund, through the Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) 'follow on funding' competition. The Innovate UK funding will be used to develop an in-house formaldehyde testing facility to validate the new technology and to explore other applications for the new technology including different pollutants.

Project impact

To date, CageCapture has demonstrated that the Cage molecule can be formulated into industrially compatible coating processes for existing air filter production lines, providing an immediate performance uplift, with minimal integration. Materials have already been released to early customers as part of market testing. The resultant test data from several leading players in the chemical and filtration sectors has been positive, with strong expressions of interest for Joint Development Programmes and sample requests.