In other to limit the global temperature increase to less than 2 C, carbon emissions from various sectors such as power and industry must be reduced. This is a challenging task due to the high costs of CO2 capture and process complexities associated with such technologies. Removing carbon directly from the air, known as direct air capture (DAC), is a difficult and energy-intensive process, given the very low concentration of atmospheric CO2.

In this project, we are investigating the feasibility of an innovative process to remove CO2 from seawater - a media that holds higher concentrations of CO2 compared to air. The final gas stream will have a much higher concentration of CO2, comparable to the flue gas generated at a gas-fired power plant. This higher concentration would make the separation a less energy-intensive process compared to direct air capture, due to an increased "concentration" driving force.

The designed process aims to remove 100 tonnes of CO2 per year and therefore, accelerates the transition towards a net-zero-carbon future.

The team comprises experts from Brunel University London (Dr Salman Masoudi Soltani), the University of Exeter (Dr Paul Halloran - project lead) and Plymouth University (Dr Thomas Bell), as well as our industrial partner, TP Group PLC (Mr James Thomas and the team).


Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project

Dr Salman Masoudi Soltani
Dr Salman Masoudi Soltani - Dr Salman Masoudi Soltani is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Chemical Engineering at Brunel University of London. He joined the university in May 2017 as a founding member of the newly established Chemical Engineering Department, contributing to the design and development of its academic programs. A Chartered Engineer (CEng, MIChemE), Dr Masoudi Soltani has a strong background in both industrial and academic research within chemical and process engineering. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), UK. In his current role, he serves as the Director of Research for the Department of Chemical Engineering. Dr Masoudi Soltani's primary research focuses on Separation Processes, particularly in adsorption technologies. He has led several high-profile research projects in carbon capture and blue hydrogen production, funded by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC), and the UK's Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ). In addition, he has undertaken numerous industrial consultancy projects, details of which are available under the "Research" section of his profile. His pilot plant-scaled research was featured in The Chemical Engineer, the flagship publication of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), in 2022. Dr Masoudi Soltani also serves as a technical advisor for JET Engineering (Anionix). Before joining Brunel University London, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Clean Fossil & Bioenergy Research Group at Imperial College London, UK (2015–2017). There, he contributed to multiple EPSRC, EU, and OECD-funded projects, including Opening New Fuels for UK Generation, Gas-FACTS, and CO2QUEST. His research focused on biomass combustion, CO₂ capture, utilisation, and process optimisation, working under the supervision of Professor Paul Fennell and in collaboration with Professor Niall Mac Dowell and Professor Nilay Shah. Prior to that, he worked as a Postdoctoral Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Research Associate at the University of Nottingham, UK (2013–2015) in collaboration with A-Gas International Ltd. In this industry-based role, he served as a Project/Process Engineer, leading the research, front-end engineering design (FEED), and development of a bespoke industrial-scale gas separation process, while being fully based at the commercial plant's site. Dr Masoudi Soltani earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nottingham in 2014, having been awarded the university’s scholarship. His doctoral research, conducted at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, focused on the synthesis and characterisation of porous carbonaceous adsorbents from recycled waste materials and their application in heavy metal removal from aqueous media.

Partnering with confidence

Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.


Project last modified 02/10/2023