Implementation of carbon dioxide capture technology, from point sources and from air, will be key to mitigating industrial emissions, compensating for hard-to-abate sectors, and concentrating CO2 for subsequent use as a sustainable carbon feedstock. Absorption, desorption, and sorbent regeneration steps are energy intensive, especially when using conventional temperature- or pressure-swing approaches. Emergent approaches based on electrochemistry (electro-swing) have potential advantages in efficiency, modularity, and versatility. This symposium features scientific and technical advances across the range of electro-swing approaches to CO2 capture, including pH-swing, electrodialysis, red-ox switchable sorbents, and other innovative methodologies. Approaches to integrate capture and conversion using electrochemistry (e.g. direct carbonate electrolysis) will also be featured. The scope will span fundamental mechanisms, theory, device development, and techno-economic aspects of electro-swing CO2 capture.
- Electrochemistry
- Carbon Capture
- Reactive capture
Matthew T. Mayer is presently leader of a Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, studying electrochemical and photoelectrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Boston College, and performed postdoctoral studies at the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces.
Peter Strasser is the chaired professor of �Electrochemistry for energy conversion and storage� at the Chemical Engineering Division of the Department of Chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. Prior to his appointment, he was Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston. Before moving to Houston, Prof. Strasser served as Senior Member of staff at Symyx Technologies, Inc., Santa Clara, USA. In 1999, Prof. Strasser earned his doctoral degree in Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from the �Fritz-Haber-Institute� of the Max-Planck-Society, Berlin, Germany, under the direction of the 2007 Chemistry Nobel Laureate, Professor Gerhard Ertl. In the same year, he was awarded the �Otto-Hahn Research Medal� by the Max-Planck Society. In 1996, Dr. Strasser was visiting scientist with Sony Central Research, Yokohama, Japan. He studied chemistry at Stanford University, the University of Tuebingen, and the University of Pisa, Italy. Professor Strasser is interested in the fundamental Materials Science and Catalysis of electrified liquid solid interfaces, in particular for renewable energy conversion, energy storage, production of fuels and chemicals.
Maryam Abdinejad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Energy Conversion and Storage at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), where she leads research on electrochemical carbon capture and utilization. Her research focuses on developing redox-active molecular systems for integrated CO2 capture and conversion, combining molecular design, electrocatalysis, operando characterization, and electrochemical reactor engineering.
She received her PhD in Molecular Science from the University of Toronto, Canada, where she specialized in electrochemical CO2 conversion. Before joining DTU in 2025, she completed a two-year postdoctoral appointment at Delft University of Technology, focusing on electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR), followed by a further two-year postdoctoral appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she developed photo- and electrochemical technologies for direct CO2 capture (e-DAC).
Her research integrates fundamental molecular design with electrochemical process engineering to develop scalable technologies for carbon capture and sustainable chemical production. Since establishing her independent research group at DTU in 2025, she has secured several prestigious competitive research grants, including the ERC Starting Grant, Novo Nordisk Foundation Starting Grant, the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) Inge Lehmann Grant, and the DFF Sapere Aude: Research Leader Grant. Her research is advancing next-generation molecular and materials platforms for integrated electrochemical CO2 capture and conversion, bridging fundamental science with scalable carbon utilization technologies.
Christopher HahnT. Alan Hatton is the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering, Post Tenure, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He obtained his BSc(Eng)(Hons) and MSc(Eng) degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, and worked at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria for three years before attending the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to obtain his PhD. For 36 years, he was the Director of the MIT School of Chemical Engineering Practice, a unique 110-year program combining high-level graduate coursework with integrated, team-driven intensive industry projects that develop technical, leadership, and communication skills. He also served as a Co-Director of the MIT Energy Initiative Low Carbon Energy Center on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. He has received the MIT-wide Everett Moore Baker teaching award, was a founding Fellow of the AIMBE, and an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has chaired a number of national and international conferences on Colloids and Separation processes. In 2026, he was awarded the NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education in recognition of his work with the Practice School program.
Hatton’s research, which has resulted in more than 500 publications and 60 patents with over 53,000 citations, has encompassed self-assembly of surfactants and block copolymers, synthesis and functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles, and the exploitation of thermal-, photo- and electro-responsive materials for chemical, environmental and pharmaceutical processing applications. His group has pioneered several electrochemically mediated operations for water treatment and resource recovery, as well as for carbon dioxide removal from point sources, ambient air, and ocean waters. The Hatton laboratory has spun out three start-up companies from MIT: Verdox (2019) is developing electrochemical swing processes for CO2 capture from point sources and ambient air; Mantel Capture (2022) is focused on exploiting molten salts for CO2 capture at the high temperatures at which it is produced in many chemical industries; and Solvanic (2025) exploits electromediated amine regeneration for carbon capture and metals enrichment.
Dr. Mim Rahimi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston (UH). Before joining UH, Dr. Rahimi was a postdoctoral associate at MIT (2018–2021), working with Prof. Alan Hatton. Dr. Rahimi earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Bruce Logan. Dr. Rahimi’s research group at UH focuses on developing electrochemical processes for separation applications. His work has been recognized through the 2024 NSF CAREER Award, the DOE’s National EnergyTech University Prize, and the UH-Chevron Energy Transition Innovation Challenge. He was also recently selected for the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) 40 Under 40 Recognition Program 2025. In addition, he received the AAEES’s 2025 Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science Competition Award and the 2024–2025 University of Houston's Junior Faculty Research Excellence Award.
Dr Zhen Xu is a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow and Assistant Professor in Department of Materials at the University of Manchester. He was previously a postdoc at University of Cambridge with Prof. Alex Forse, where he was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. He completed his PhD at Imperial College London supervised by Prof. Magda Titirici. His research focuses on the development of advanced carbon materials and electrochemical devices for CO2 capture and energy storage.