Swiss cleantech company Divea develops graphene filters to separate and capture carbon dioxide from industrial exhaust gases | Top 100 Swiss Innovators

Image source: Divea

The Swiss clean technology company Divea was founded in 2024 and is dedicated to the research and development of graphene filters. Made of graphene materials, the filter has pores on its surface similar in size to carbon dioxide, enabling the separation and capture of carbon dioxide from other gases in industrial waste gases. It is suitable for industries with high carbon dioxide emissions, such as steel and cement.

Divea is a spin - off company from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), co - founded by Karl Khalil, Mojtaba Chevalier, and Kumar Agrawal. Karl Khalil serves as the company's CEO; Mojtaba Chevalier is the company's CTO and holds a doctorate from EPFL; Kumar Agrawal is the company's scientific advisor and currently serves as an associate professor at EPFL.

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Industries such as cement, steel, and chemicals account for approximately 34% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and it is extremely difficult to control carbon emissions in these industrial sectors. In addition to the high energy consumption of their operations, the production processes themselves, such as the calcination of cement clinker, also release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Currently, most factories mainly use solvents such as amine solutions to absorb carbon dioxide. However, the problem is that the cost of capturing carbon dioxide from industrial waste gases has always been high. The main reason for this is that industrial waste gases do not only contain carbon dioxide but also nitrogen and other various gases. Therefore, extracting carbon dioxide separately from waste gases based on current technologies requires additional energy and cost.

Image source: Divea

Divea has developed a new type of carbon dioxide filter based on graphene materials. By creating pores the size of carbon dioxide on the single - atom layer of graphene, this filter can directly separate carbon dioxide from the mixed gases in industrial waste gases, making carbon capture economically viable for industries with high carbon dioxide emissions, such as steel, cement, metals, and natural gas. Compared with existing technologies, Divea's filter has lower costs and higher energy efficiency.

Divea's technology is based on the research results of a paper titled "Millisecond Lattice Vaporization for High - Density Sieving Nanopores in Monolayer Graphene" published by Kumar Agrawal in Science Advances. That is, through millisecond lattice vaporization and vacancy defect technology, high - density nanopores with sub - angstrom precision are etched in monolayer graphene.

In the manufacturing process, Divea first synthesizes graphene and then creates tiny pores on its surface similar in size to carbon dioxide molecules. These pores function like sieves, allowing only carbon dioxide molecules to pass through while blocking other gases larger than carbon dioxide molecules, such as nitrogen, thus achieving separation from other molecules. Finally, Divea rolls the porous graphene membrane into a roll and installs it in a device at the industrial emission source site. This device is connected to the flue gas and can directly remove carbon dioxide from it. The absorbed carbon dioxide will be permanently stored or used to produce other derivative products. Based on years of accumulation, Divea has world - leading professional technology and patents for each synthesis step.

The graphene membrane prepared by Divea has multiple advantages. Due to its breakthrough performance, the graphene membrane can significantly reduce enterprises' energy consumption and costs, providing an economically viable carbon reduction solution for smelters of low - concentration fluids such as aluminum. At the same time, the graphene membrane only requires electricity to operate, does not need heating, and does not use solvents, avoiding environmental pollution caused by solvent volatilization into the atmosphere and further expanding the application fields of the technology. Moreover, the graphene membrane has a compact structure, is easy to install, and can be modularly assembled, enabling carbon capture in places with limited space such as offshore oil platforms.

Divea has become one of the industrial partners of the CCUS demonstration project at EPFL. The two parties are collaborating to promote the large - scale production and commercialization of high - performance graphene membranes and plan to build a full - scale carbon capture plant by 2032.

Divea is one of the companies listed in the "TOP100 Swiss Startups" in 2025. The "TOP100 Swiss Startups" brings together the best Swiss - made startups and growing technology innovation companies and is the most internationally influential benchmark list in the Swiss technology innovation field. Since 2011, this list has selected 100 of the most innovative Swiss companies with market prospects and 25 Swiss growing companies with unicorn potential across the country every year, covering fields such as life sciences, engineering machinery, robotics, information and communication, low - carbon technology, and food technology. The "TOP100 Swiss Startups" and its series of brand activities are iconic events in the Swiss innovation ecosystem, representing the highest level of Swiss innovation and the forefront of international investment and financing.

The Chinese version of the "TOP100 Swiss Startups" in 2025 was honorably released by Insight Tech. Insight Tech is the Chinese authorized cooperation partner of the "TOP100 Swiss Startups", responsible for the operation and promotion of the list in China and assisting the list projects in business cooperation with China. Insight Tech is a service provider for China - EU (Switzerland) industrial innovation cooperation, committed to promoting the localization of Swiss innovation in China and the internationalization of Chinese industries through innovation accelerators, equity investment, and business consulting services.

To obtain the complete list and industry lists of the "TOP100 Swiss Startups", please visit the official account or website of Insight Tech.