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UK-based start-up COOloop has secured £150,000 in seed funding from Carbon13 Ventures to commercialise its carbon-negative acetic acid production technology, developed at Monash University. The company uses a world-first Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) catalyst to convert CO₂ and renewable hydrogen directly into acetic acid, potentially eliminating millions of tonnes of emissions.

COOloop's research team, led by Professor Akshat Tanksale, created an iron-based catalyst that converts CO₂ and methanol into acetic acid and later developed a cobalt-nickel bimetallic catalyst for direct CO₂ conversion. COOloop aims to make this process economically viable and scalable while collaborating with Monash University.