Industrial wastewater is generally perceived as a cost: that of treatment, environmental compliance and pollution management. This view is evolving, as critical metals increase in value and regulations on persistent pollutants tighten, effluent is increasingly seen as a reservoir of untapped resources. It is on this thesis that the German startup Porelio was built. The startup, which has just raised 2.4 million euros in pre-seed, is developing technology capable of recovering precious metals present in industrial waste while eliminating PFAS. Its ambition goes beyond simple depollution and to make wastewater a new source of raw materials.
The operation is led by the Portuguese fund Faber, alongside Polytechnique Ventures, Grupo Tecnologica and better ventures. It takes over from 2.5 million euros of public funding which made it possible to develop the technology. The capital will now be used to take a more difficult step, moving from scientific demonstration to industrialization.
Porelio’s bet is based on a simple observation. In many industries, precious metals leave production lines on a daily basis. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, gold or silver are present in very low concentrations in effluents from sectors as varied as semiconductors, chemistry, fuel cells, the pharmaceutical industry or mining activities. Individually, these quantities seem insignificant. However, on the scale of an industrial site or an entire sector, they represent considerable economic losses.
The paradox is known to industrialists: these metals are sometimes worth several tens of thousands of euros per kilogram, but their recovery often remains more expensive than their abandonment. Available technologies, whether activated carbon or ion exchange resins, lack selectivity or become uncompetitive when concentrations are low. Result: companies invest more to eliminate these metals than to recover them.
It is precisely this barrier that Porelio intends to break down. The FOMS, for Functionalized Ordered Mesoporous Silicashave been studied for almost thirty years in materials chemistry laboratories. Their structure, made up of an extremely regular network of microscopic pores that can be chemically functionalized, allows them to capture certain molecules or certain metal ions with great precision while allowing the rest of the fluid to circulate.
The scientific potential of these materials has long been recognized. Their weakness lay elsewhere. Producing them in the laboratory is relatively simple, but manufacturing them industrially, with consistent quality and a cost compatible with industry requirements, has until now been a challenge.
The innovation claimed by Porelio lies in a patented continuous flow manufacturing process making it possible to produce these materials thirty times faster than traditional methods, while retaining their capture properties.
Porelio is not only aimed at the precious metals recovery market. The same technological platform targets a second fast-growing market: the elimination of PFAS, these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances qualified as “eternal pollutants” due to their very high chemical stability.
Here again, the choice is strategic. If the recovery of precious metals responds to an economic logic, that of PFAS responds to a regulatory logic, under the effect of the tightening of environmental standards, manufacturers will gradually have to demonstrate their ability to eliminate these persistent molecules from their discharges.
The startup claims to have obtained particularly promising results on TFA, an ultrashort compound from the PFAS family considered one of the most difficult to eliminate. According to reported data, its materials capture nearly six times more TFA than activated carbon in just five minutes. If this performance is confirmed on a large scale, it could constitute a significant competitive advantage in a market expected to grow strongly over the next decade.
The startup is building a platform of advanced materials whose properties can be adapted to different contaminants or metals by modifying their chemical functionalization. Today, it targets palladium and PFAS. Tomorrow, this same platform could potentially be adapted to other critical metals, rare earths or other complex molecules.
This platform logic has become one of the favored models of deeptech investors. The same fundamental technology can successively open up several markets without requiring reinventing the entire industrial process.
Still, Porelio’s real challenge begins now. With nine employees, the startup is entering the most delicate phase of its development. The funding obtained will be used to increase production from a few kilograms of materials per day to several tonnes per year and to transform pilot projects already carried out in Europe into commercial contracts.
As is often the case in industrial technologies, the main risk is economic and operational; manufacturers will only adopt a new technology if it demonstrates a lower total cost of ownership than existing solutions, a sufficient lifespan of the materials, simple integration into existing installations and a clearly measurable return on investment.
The founding team is one of Porelio’s main assets. The management is provided by Rhea Machado, PhD in chemical process engineering from the Technical University of Berlin, whose work focuses specifically on advanced materials and their industrialization. She is surrounded by Javier Silva Mora, technological director, graduate ofPolytechnic School and doctoral student in chemistry, as well as Nikol Michailidou, product director, chemical engineer also trained at the Technical University of Berlin. Today made up of nine employees, Porelio is entering a new phase of its development, where scientific excellence must now be accompanied by a rise in industrial and commercial power.
