Oxford, United Kingdom, 23 November 2023 – FluoRok, a deep-tech start-up company developing revolutionary processes to access fluorochemicals in an efficient, safe, clean and sustainable way, has been awarded a Catapult grant by Innovate UK Edge.
Innovate UK Edge seeks to empower innovation-driven businesses to grow at pace and achieve their industry and society transforming ambitions. The grant will fund an independent technical and economic viability assessment of FluoRok’s novel fluorochemical manufacturing process.
Fluorochemicals are fundamental to our daily life, with key applications in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and Lithium-ion batteries. However, their production currently relies on a centuries-old, energy-intensive process involving highly toxic, hazardous, and difficult-to-handle hydrogen fluoride (HF). Fluorok’s revolutionary technology bypasses HF to directly manufacture fluorinated materials from raw minerals or fluorinated waste streams. The results are vastly reduced manufacturing costs, lower carbon emissions and, for the first time, a cyclic economy for fluorochemicals via the use of waste fluoride sources.
The assessment, to be conducted by technology innovation catalyst and globally renowned process experts CPI, will independently validate the expected benefits and costs, providing a wealth of data to enable FluoRok to effectively identify and evaluate options to scale-up and commercialize its groundbreaking technology.
Dr Gabriele Pupo, FluoRok’s CEO said, “This grant is another step in FluoRok’s growth journey and an independent evaluation of our technology is key to our commercial roadmap. We are looking forward to working with the team at CPI over the coming weeks and I’d like to thank Innovate UK Edge for their support.”
About Fluorok FluoRok is a start-up company based in Oxford, UK and focused on fluorochemical R&D, manufacturing and licensing. It develops novel and transformational technologies to access fluorochemicals in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. Founded in 2022, the company builds on decades of research in the laboratories of Professor Véronique Gouverneur at the University of Oxford. Contact Gabriele Pupo, Ph.D. or Clare Simpson, info@fluorok.com
FluoRok’s proprietary technology directly employs fluorinated waste material or naturally occurring fluorite mineral as a source, to access high-value compounds that are key to the world’s energy transition, our global food supply, and our health. Its innovative solution reduces energy requirements, lowers CO2 emissions and enables reshoring of fluorochemical manufacturing due to intrinsic process safety.
FluoRok is backed by Oxford Science Enterprises, an independent, billion-pound investment company, that funds transformational businesses via its unique partnership with the University of Oxford.
Contact Gabriele Pupo, Ph.D. or Clare Simpson, info@fluorok.com
About Innovate UK Edge Innovate UK’s business growth and scaling service offers tailored support and advice to innovation-focused companies, empowering them to achieve their ambitions.
About the Catapult network The Catapult network brings together nine elite technology centres established by Innovate UK as a long-term investment in the UK’s economic capability. Through cutting-edge R&D infrastructure partnership building and specialist knowledge, Catapults help businesses accelerate the development, deployment and adoption of new technologies, bringing valuable products and services into existence to compete in the global markets of tomorrow.
About CPI CPI catalyses the adoption of advanced technologies and manufacturing solutions to benefit people, places, and our planet.
We’re a pioneering social enterprise that accelerates the development, scale-up and commercialisation of smart AgriFoodTech, energy storage, HealthTech, materials, and pharma innovations. Through our incredible innovation experts and infrastructure, we look beyond the obvious to transform healthcare and drive towards a sustainable future.
As a trusted partner of industry, academia, government, entrepreneurs and the investment community, we connect the dots within the innovation ecosystem to make great ideas and inventions a reality. We believe by working together we can build a better collective future, and as part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, we facilitate access to world-class organisations to deliver transformation across industries and landscapes.
Creating lasting global impact from the North of England and Scotland, we invest in people and disruptive technologies to invigorate economies, create circular supply chains and make our world a better place.