University of Bath aims to help chemical industry reduce emissions
The University of Bath is assisting with research to improve the sustainability of chemical and polymer production.
The Sustainable Chemicals and Materials Manufacturing Hub (SCHEMA), led by the University of Oxford, brings together researchers from across the UK working with a large consortium of commercial, technology translation and civic partners.
It has been funded by £13.75 million from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and leverages £22 million of commitments from its partners.
Chemical manufacturing is crucial to the UK’s economy. It is the UK’s second largest manufacturing industry, directly employing over 140,000 people and delivering turnover exceeding £75 billion per year.
However, there is an urgent need for this industry to tackle the environmental impact from both manufacturing and its products. Greenhouse gas emissions from the global sector are significant, with it currently accounting for approximately 5–6% of emissions (more than double the global airline industry).
Coupled with this are the challenges of raw materials being sourced from fossil fuel extraction and refining, pollution in water and soil, and globally low rates of polymer recycling.
The SCHEMA Hub will be led by Prof. Charlotte Williams OBE FRS working in the University of Oxford’s Department of Chemistry and Professor Matthew Davidson from the Institute for Sustainability and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Bath.
It will involve academics from Chemistry, Engineering, Materials Science, Computation, Environmental Economics and Law at the Universities of Oxford, Bath, Liverpool, Cardiff, York and Cambridge.
Professor Williams said, “It is imperative that the chemical industry reaches net zero emissions and sustainability as so many essential downstream industries depend upon it. Our Hub will be well placed to tackle this difficult challenge by bringing together a very wide range of academic expertise with companies from across the supply chain.”
Professor Davidson, Co-director of the SCHEMA Hub, added, “We are delighted to be a key partner in this new Manufacturing Hub. 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 work will build upon 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 lab waste.
The Hub is strongly integrated with high-tech and high-growth SMEs as well as multinationals. It builds upon the successful Bath-led Innovation Centre in Advanced Sustainable Technologies.
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.
