University of Birmingham spin-out PeroCycle has announced the appointment of Dr Harriet Kildahl, who co-invented the company’s core technology, as Technical Director.
Dr Kildahl, who devised the closed loop carbon recycling system technology with Professor Yulong Ding at the University of Birmingham, U.K., joins the PeroCycle team after a three-year stint in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) consulting.
Her appointment forms a powerful partnership with PeroCycle CEO Grant Budge, who has led the development and commercialisation of CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) and CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilisation) technologies for over a decade.
The company is currently raising £4.5 million for a development plan that includes the design and implementation of a pilot plant to demonstrate the technology’s performance and scalability, and is targeting the early completion of £1.5 million.
Dr Kildahl was instrumental in developing the process that converts CO₂ emissions from steel mills into usable carbon monoxide (CO), a feedstock that can replace coke in furnaces, enabling a closed carbon loop for heavy industry.
By turning CO₂ into a valuable resource, and directly at source, PeroCycle’s closed carbon loop technology offers a pragmatic, profitable route to net-zero manufacturing that could redefine how industries like steel, cement, and chemicals think about emissions.
Dr Kildahl and Grant Budge will lead PeroCycle’s mission to transform the performance and economics of industrial decarbonisation pathways.
Grant Budge said: “Harriet brings not just technical excellence, but a visionary understanding of how carbon utilisation can reshape industrial economics. Together, we’re building a pathway that doesn’t just capture carbon, it keeps it in the loop.”
Dr Kildahl said: “It’s incredibly exciting to return to the technology I helped develop and see it move towards real-world deployment. Joining PeroCycle is an opportunity to help shape the vision Professor Ding and I first imagined — and to see it come to life at industrial scale.”