Academics from the University of Bath are to help cut the chemical industry’s significant carbon emissions through the re-use of waste and by harnessing renewable electricity.
They are teaming up with colleagues from five other UK universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, in the £13.75m government research project.
The Sustainable Chemicals and Materials Manufacturing Hub (SCHEMA) researchers – who specialise in disciplines spanning chemistry, engineering, computation, materials science, public policy and law – will also work with a large consortium of commercial, technology translation and civic partners.
It aims to improve the sustainability of chemical and polymer production by transforming their design, manufacture and recyclability at all stages of the product lifecycle.
Chemical manufacturing is crucial to the UK’s economy. It is the UK’s second largest manufacturing industry, directly employing more than140,000 people and delivering turnover exceeding £75bn a year.
However, there is an urgent need for it to tackle the environmental impact from both manufacturing and its products.
The industry currently creates more than double the carbon emissions than the global airline sector (5%-6% of global emissions).
Led by the University of Oxford, the researchers will focus on transforming the way chemicals and polymers are designed, made and recycled and to support the transition away from the use of virgin petrochemicals and to increase recycling rates.
Key to this will be designing processes that can produce chemicals and polymers from renewable raw materials such as biomass, carbon dioxide and even industrial wastes, and integrating renewable energy into the process engineering.
The project will build on the Bath’s research expertise in sustainable chemical technologies and sustainable systems, including making painkillers from plant sources instead of crude oil and helping launch the UK’s first pilot plant for recycling plastic waste.
It will also tap into the expertise of the successful Bath-led Innovation Centre in Advanced Sustainable Technologies and, together with the university’s recently announced Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Sustainable Chemical Technologies, places it at the centre of a highly integrated research, training and innovation ecosystem for sustainable technologies.
The SCHEMA Hub will be helmed by co-director Prof Matthew Davidson from the University of Bath’s Institute for Sustainability and the Department of Chemistry.
Prof Davidson said: “To deliver a sustainable chemical and materials manufacturing industry of the future is a huge challenge that requires a multidisciplinary and multi-partner approach, working closely across academia and industry.
“This substantial investment by EPSRC provides an exciting opportunity to develop the novel molecules, materials and processes that future manufacturing will need.”
The research teams will work across the fields of sustainable chemistry, process engineering, polymer materials science, and digital technologies.
A key aim is to leverage recent developments in computation and information technology to design future materials that are both functional and fully sustainable, embedding principles of circular economy and end-of-life management.
The hub has been funded by £13.75m from the EPSRC and leverages £22m commitments from its partners.
