French engineering SME fabricating advanced adsorbent structures for CO2 capture and precious metals recovery from industrial waste streams.
6T-MIC INGENIERIES is a French engineering SME that specialises in the fabrication of advanced functional structures for industrial separation and recovery processes. Their core work involves manufacturing engineered adsorbent components — combining materials such as metal-organic frameworks, carbon nanotubes, and ceramics — using techniques including 3D printing and joule heating to produce structured devices suitable for pilot-scale deployment. They serve as a specialist manufacturing and process-engineering partner in large European consortia, translating research-grade materials into functional industrial components. Their portfolio spans both gas-phase separation (CO2 capture) and solid-phase resource recovery (precious metals from end-of-life products).
In CARMOF (2018-2022), they contributed manufacturing expertise for hybrid adsorbent structures combining carbon nanotubes and metal-organic frameworks, using additive manufacturing and resistive heating techniques.
CARMOF targeted efficient CO2 capture using innovative adsorbents and vacuum temperature swing adsorption cycles, with membrane technology integration.
PEACOC (2021-2026) focuses on pre-commercial pilot recovery of platinum-group metals from spent automotive catalysts, WEEE, photovoltaic panels, and printed circuit board assemblies.
Ceramic and hybrid structure keywords appear in the CARMOF project, pointing to multi-material fabrication capabilities that underpin their adsorbent manufacturing work.
Their H2020 participation opened in 2018 squarely in the CO2 capture domain — engineering adsorbent structures based on MOFs and carbon nanotubes for climate-relevant gas separation, with fabrication methods like 3D printing and joule heating as the differentiating technical contribution. By 2021, their focus shifted to the circular economy for critical raw materials, specifically recovering platinum-group metals from spent catalysts, electronic waste, and photovoltaic panels through the PEACOC pilot project. The thread connecting both phases is process engineering for separation and recovery at industrial scale — the domain changed (atmosphere to waste streams), but the underlying competence in structured functional materials did not.
6T-MIC is moving toward critical raw material recovery and circular economy applications, a sector with strong EU regulatory tailwinds and growing industrial demand — suggesting future consortium opportunities in WEEE processing, battery recycling, and end-of-life product valorisation.
6T-MIC participates exclusively as a consortium partner and has never led an H2020 project, indicating they prefer to contribute specialist manufacturing or engineering capabilities within larger, coordinated efforts rather than managing project consortia themselves. With 38 unique partners across just two projects, they are embedded in large multi-stakeholder consortia — averaging roughly 19 partners per project — which points to high-ambition, pre-commercial pilot programmes rather than small bilateral research partnerships. This profile suits organisations looking for a focused technical contributor who will deliver a defined work package without the overhead of consortium governance.
Despite only two projects, 6T-MIC has built a network of 38 unique partners spanning 9 countries, reflecting participation in large pan-European pilot consortia. Their geographic reach extends well beyond France, though their specific partner countries are not individually identified in the available data.
6T-MIC occupies an unusual niche as an SME that bridges advanced materials science and industrial fabrication engineering — they are neither a pure research lab nor a conventional manufacturer, but the entity that turns laboratory adsorbent materials into pilot-scale functional devices. Their combination of additive manufacturing (3D printing) with unconventional processing methods like joule heating for structured adsorbents is a specific technical capability rarely found at SME scale. For consortium builders, they offer practical engineering execution that large research institutes and universities typically cannot provide in-house.
