Public Funding for Cagecapture Limited

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According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), indoor air pollution causes an estimated 3.8 million deaths worldwide a year. Formaldehyde is one of the most common pollutants in indoor air; it can be emitted from walls, floors, cabinets, furniture, fabrics and in cigarette smoke. Formaldehyde causes various serious health problems, and has been classified as a Group 1 human carcinogen by WHO. The current leading technology for capturing formaldehyde is activated carbon adsorption, which has low capture capacity and poor selectivity. Researchers at the University of Liverpool have developed a molecular solution -- a 'cage prison' to tackle this important challenge. This cage material can capture around 500 times as much formaldehyde as activated carbon, the most common material for formaldehyde removal indoors. The cage material is solution processable and can be incorporated into pre-existing filter technologies to give a drop-in performance benefit and a fast route to market. This technology was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's First Prize in their 2016 Emerging Technologies Competition. Furthermore, based on the CageCapture technology, we are able to design and develop new cage materials for other specific pollutant scavenging--to capture other toxic indoor air pollutants such as radon and various VOCs. In this 18-months project, the company will target activated carbon and air-filter manufacturers as early adopters. These organisations will be motivated to integrate Cage materials into their product lines, creating premium-priced air filters, compliant to tightening Clean Air legislation. We will manufacture and sell formulated Cage materials in this phase and will control the early stages of product integration and capturing valuable application IP from new patents. In the longer term, CageCapture will establish itself as a leading IP Technology company in the air purification field. The company will commercialise IP generated from molecules, formulations, and air filter embodiments.