Prof. Grant Glover, a seasoned researcher with over 20 years of expertise in gas separation and porous materials, currently leads a university research group delving into mixed gas adsorption and ionic liquid absorption. With a rich background in both academia and defence R&D, his contributions span journal articles, patents, and the acclaimed book Gas Adsorption in Metal-Organic Frameworks. In an interview for "Advanced Industrial Technologies in the ALuminium Industry (Part II)" e-Magazine, Prof. Glover shares key insights into the potential of porous materials and adsorbents in aluminium industry applications, particularly in energy-efficient gas separation processes.

AL Circle: Traditional CCS technologies struggle with aluminium smelting due to low CO2 concentration and high contaminant levels. Could you elaborate on the unique chemistry and resilience of your sorbents that allow them to bypass pre-treatment steps while maintaining high selectivity and regeneration efficiency?

Prof. Grant Glover: Absolutely.  Our approach uses nanoengineered reticular materials—advanced porous solids with exceptionally high surface area and tailored CO2 capture sites. These materials are uniquely designed to maintain high selectivity for CO2 even at ultra-low concentrations, which directly addresses one of the main barriers in aluminium CCS: energy and cost-inefficiency in dilute streams. Moreover, the sorbents regenerate at low temperatures in the range of 40-60 °C, enabling integration with low-grade waste heat sources and improving the overall energy profile of the system. We have collected data across numerous adsorption-desorption cycles and have established that the materials are exceptionally stable.  Additionally, our material can function without requiring drying of the process stream, thereby reducing the burden of pre-treatment steps.

AL Circle: Given the modular and scalable design of your solution, how easily can your system be retrofitted into existing aluminium smelters? Could you walk us through a typical integration roadmap—from pilot to full-scale deployment?

Prof. Grant Glover: Our modular design allows for tailored integration into complex environments like aluminium smelters, where low CO2 concentrations are the norm. What sets us apart is the ability to engineer customised modules using a range of sorbent formats—be it pellets, monoliths, or contactors etc.—based on specific flue gas profiles and operational constraints. We then pair these designs with detailed computational fluid dynamics to understand how the contactor, adsorbent, gas flow, CO2 concentration, and adsorbent system design contribute to CO2 purity and recovery. This type of “atoms-to-systems” approach is unique as it provides us insight into how molecular scale changes have macroscale impacts on the adsorption system results. While full-scale deployments are ahead of us, we are developing our platform to adapt precisely to customer needs as we move toward pilot projects.

AL Circle: From a cost-efficiency perspective, Atoco aims to significantly undercut the $180–$300 per tonne CO2 capture range currently seen in aluminium. What is your current cost-per ton benchmark, and how do you anticipate this evolving as your technology scales?

Prof. Grant Glover: As we are still in the pre-commercial phase, we don’t have a finalised cost-per-tonne benchmark yet. However, our design and material choices—especially the use of solid-state sorbents engineered for low regeneration energy and long lifetimes—are specifically aimed at driving total capture costs well below current market ranges. As we scale, we anticipate significant gains from material optimisation, modular manufacturing, and reduced energy inputs, all of which will contribute to a steep decline in the cost per ton over time.

To explore the full interview and gain deeper insights into the recent shifts in the aluminium smelters, click here.