Two new appointments have joined Nottingham chemical manufacturer Promethean Particles, growing its research and development team and strengthening its manufacturing capability.
Georgia Rowe and Chigozie Obu are recent appointments at the firm, which is pioneering the large-scale manufacture of materials called metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs for short.
MOFs are tiny crystal structures that have extremely large internal surface areas and can be used for a variety of purposes, including trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) created by the burning of industrial fuels.
This means they have been recognised as a potential game-changer in the fight against climate change, with Promethean Particles in pole position when it comes to being able to manufacture them cost-effectively and in sufficient quantities for widespread, large-scale use.
Georgia has been appointed as a synthetic chemist at the firm, on Midland Way, and will help to develop scalable processes for making MOFs, while Chigozie has joined the company as a process operator. His role is to ensure the production processes in the manufacturing facility are running smoothly and safely.
Their appointments are the latest in a number of new hires at the firm and follow the appointment of Greg Searle as commercial director earlier this year.
Georgia, who comes from nearby Derby, has joined Promethean Particles directly after completing a PhD – studying MOFs – at the University of Birmingham.
She said: “It’s really exciting to have gone from working with MOFs in small quantities as part of my PhD to a company where they are manufacturing them on a larger scale and in a sustainable way.
“My PhD looked at using MOFs in lithium batteries, which is another area of huge potential for MOFs and important for sustainability. So I’m really loving the fact that I’m creating MOFs for applications like carbon capture and helping them to fulfil their potential.”
Chigozie, who originally hails from Nigeria and recently completed a Masters degree at the University of Derby, said: “It’s exciting to be working with MOFs.
“I am enjoying learning more about them from my new colleagues and finding out how they can help the environment.
“It’s great to be part of the Promethean team, sharing ideas and collaborating to achieve the company’s goals is rewarding. It is also motivating to understand how the MOFs I am helping to produce is contributing to technologies that tackle global problems.”
The appointments have set the seal on a busy 2025 so far for Promethean Particles, which recently welcomed a new chairman, Paul Capell, onto its board and invested over £100,000 in two new pieces of analytical equipment for its lab.
James Stephenson, chief executive officer of Promethean Particles, said: “Georgia and Chigozie have both settled in incredibly quickly, and it is remarkable to see how much our team has grown over the past year or so.
“It is shaping up to be an exciting year as we work closely with new and existing commercial partners to demonstrate the huge potential our MOFs have for reducing carbon emissions and mitigating some of the planet’s most pressing issues.”
For more information, visit www.prometheanparticles.co.uk
