AEOL KOREA

The problem

Conventional desiccants in dehumidifiers and air handling units, silica gel and zeolite, must be heated to 100 to 150 °C to release the moisture they hold, which drives up power bills. Carbon capture faces the same energy wall, since regenerating the sorbent is a major cost item. AEOL KOREA's starting use case was mould in Korean underground car parks during the rainy season.

The solution

AEOL KOREA produces MOFs (metal-organic frameworks), including an adsorbent called F100 licensed from the state research institute KRICT, and builds them into its own equipment: a dehumidification rotor, the MOForest hybrid dehumidifier, ventilation systems and the Scarlet purifier. Its carbon capture product, the CarbonSorV wheel, was shown at CES 2025.

How it works

1. F100 has a specific surface area of 1,800 to 4,300 m² per gram and adsorbs over 0.7 g of water per gram at 60% relative humidity, versus under 0.3 g for silica gel and zeolite.
2. The powder is bonded to a polymer substrate by heat fusion between rollers at 60 to 80 °C, with no binder to clog the pores.
3. The substrate is wound into a rotor: one section captures moisture (or CO2) while the other is continuously regenerated at just 60 to 80 °C.
4. The AEOL F100 rotor removes 28 litres of water a day on 280 W, against 22 litres on 600 W for a silica gel rotor according to the company, and is rated for 13,000 regeneration cycles.
5. The CarbonSorV wheel applies the same rotary principle to separate CO2 from mixed gases, using MOFs synthesised with water as the solvent.

Value proposition

Low temperature regeneration that the company says can cut dehumidification electricity use by up to 70%, and the ability to run the rotor on 60 to 80 °C waste heat.

Technology edge

The key difference is regeneration temperature: 60 to 80 °C for F100, versus 100 °C for silica gel, 150 °C for zeolite and 240 °C for BASF's commercial F300 MOF, per figures the company published in 2020. AEOL KOREA handles material synthesis, rotor coating and the finished device, whereas Svante, for instance, relies on BASF to make its MOF. For carbon capture it claims CO2 separation 80 times more efficient than earlier methods, a figure not independently verified.

Business model

B2B: sales of MOFs and rotors to manufacturers, engineering services and licensing; sales of ventilation systems, one of them listed under Korea's innovative public procurement scheme. Pricing not disclosed.

Market

BCC Research (March 2025) sized the global MOF market at $459.6 million in 2024, heading for about $949 million by 2029, a 15.6% annual growth rate. AEOL KOREA targets dehumidification and indoor air quality first, then carbon capture and, longer term, carbon credits.

Competitors and alternatives

Since November 2023 BASF has produced several hundred tonnes a year of CALF-20 MOF for Canada's Svante, whose filters capture up to 95% of CO2 from industrial flue gas. LG Electronics already ships MOF filters in its PuriCare purifiers (Seoul Air Fair, April 2026). Against silica gel and zeolite desiccants, AEOL KOREA bets on vertical integration and low temperature regeneration, at a far smaller production scale than BASF.

Use cases

• A Korean appliance maker is testing AEOL KOREA's MOFs under research contracts for drying and dehumidification functions.
• An oral care brand (Re:Brush) and a feminine hygiene brand (Aroundbody) use its MOFs for moisture absorption, odour control and antimicrobial purposes.
• A building manager fits a MOF rotor to tackle humidity in an underground car park during the rainy season.
• An industrial site could use the CarbonSorV wheel to concentrate CO2 from its exhaust gases.

Traction and proof points

Technology transfer from KRICT (Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology) for F100; polymer rotors made with US firm AirExchange (2020); exhibited at HARFKO in Seoul (October 2022); MOFs supplied to Re:Brush, Re:Sleep and Aroundbody; research contracts with major Korean appliance makers, unnamed. CES Innovation Awards 2024 Honoree (MOForest) and FIX 2024 Grand Innovation Award. Exhibited at CES 2024, 2025 and 2026; 13 patents.

What remains to be proven

The 80x CO2 separation gain is a company claim, with no public test data or named industrial pilot. With around ten staff and large scale production only planned for the medium term, its ability to supply volume against BASF is unproven. In 2020 its rotors cost slightly more than market benchmarks: the case rests on energy savings that still need real-world numbers.