With a wealth of strategic global challenges, chemistry can potentially offer solutions but there is always a challenge to translate benchtop work to real-world applications. This presentation will deal with three short stories spanning our efforts to design new porous solids while keeping an eye on real-world applications. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous network solids. MOFs can be used like a sponge to trap selected gases and release them under some external stimulus (e.g., pressure drop, temperature increase). Such an approach has been challenging for post-combustion carbon capture owing to the presence of water and acid gases in the stream. We have developed a solid [1] that has moved up the technology ladder, with different academic and industrial partners [2], to actually be capturing CO2 industrially at 25 tonnes per day scale. I will discuss some of the basic science and also the hurdles to translate from milligrams to industrial demonstration including the key aspect of being able to physisorb CO2 in the presence of water.[3] The second part will deal with a new approach to make MOFs. MOFs typically rely on a reticular (net-based) approach where metal and organic linkers define a topology and pore sizes. We have developed a new route to MOFs where the guest molecules can play a much greater role - rather than simply filling the void, guests can determining pore structure. This approach relies on robust H-bonded intermediates[4,5]. Results on the use of this approach for xylene isomer separation will be presented. [6] The final part concerns a non-framework approach, using a simple coordination chemistry, to develop a system to selectively extract vanadium from industrial streams. Vanadium is a critical mineral present in many residual waste from petroleum and coal processing. We use a cyclic imidedioxime to bind and precipitate vanadium from oilsands tailings.[7] [1] Shimizu, G. K. H., Rajendran, A., Woo, T. K. and coworkers, Science 2021, 374, 1464. [2] P. Hovington et al. Proceedings of the 15th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference 15-18 March 2021, [3] Shimizu, G. K. H., Rajendran, A., Woo, T. K. Adv. Mater. 2023, in press. [4] Shimizu, G. K. H. and coworkers, CHEM. 2018, 4, 868 [5] Shimizu, G. K. H. and coworkers, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 123, 21263 [6] Shimizu, G. K. H. and coworkers, 2022, PCT application. [7] Osin, O., Shimizu G. K. H. and coworkers, Nature Commun. 2024, 15, Article 2614.