ZEFIRA has officially joined COUPLED (CO₂ Utilisation Process via Looping tEchnology Demonstration), a Horizon Europe project set to kick off in November 2025, aimed at demonstrating an integrated and innovative CO₂-to-fuel process for the decarbonisation of heavy industry.

The COUPLED project is coordinated by The University of Manchester (UK) and brings together 15 partners from 7 countries, combining expertise across academia, research organisations, and industry. The project will demonstrate a full process chain that integrates chemical looping, advanced membrane-based CO₂ separation, and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to produce sustainable fuels from captured carbon dioxide.

The official Kick-off Meeting will take place on 19 November 2025 in Manchester, where all project partners will convene to formally launch the collaboration and initiate the first technical and organisational activities of the project.

Within COUPLED, ZEFIRA will be responsible for research on carbon molecular sieve membranes (CMSM) and for the design and construction of a membrane-based CO₂ separation skid. This work will support the development of compact, efficient, and scalable separation units that are critical to enabling the integrated CO₂ conversion process demonstrated in the project.

By contributing its expertise in advanced membranes and reactor-scale system design, ZEFIRA strengthens the technological backbone of COUPLED and reinforces its role in accelerating the industrial deployment of next-generation carbon utilisation and sustainable fuel technologies.