Putting carbon waste to work for
net zero
UK business titans are collaborating in the first-ever cross-sector effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Flue2Chem project aims to transform industrial waste gases into chemicals that can be utilized in the production of superior and more environmentally friendly consumer goods. Heavy industry, power plants, and transportation. When it comes to carbon emissions, these might be the usual suspects.
Did you know that coal, oil, and gas are also sources of the majority of the carbon used to make everything from cleaning supplies to cell phones? And the trend is only expected to grow.
According to a report released in April 20211 by the Nova Institute and Unilever, the demand for chemicals made from fossil fuels will have increased by more than twofold by 2050. Therefore, if the use of fossil carbon in consumer products is to be successfully phased out, renewable carbon production will need to rise by a factor of 15.
Carbon waste for chemical manufacturing
The key to achieving this goal lies in finding alternatives. To this end, 15 key industrial players representing a £73 billion (€82.7 billion) UK sector2 and including Unilever, Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and BASF have signed a collaboration agreement for a two-year programme committed to cutting carbon dioxide emissions from the manufacturing process.
Having secured £2.68 million (€3.04 million) of funding from Innovate UK, the project will focus on replacing fossil fuel stock with ‘captured’ carbon made from waste gases from foundation industries such as the production of metals, glass, paper and chemicals.
Ian Howell, Unilever’s Home Care Science and Technology R&D Director said “No single company can do this alone and so to have the power of 15 manufacturers and academics marks a significant step forward not only for the UK, but globally too.”
“This is an excellent example of the power of collaborative working. It is an important step for the UK and SCI’s vision of furthering the application of chemistry and related sciences into industry for public benefit,” said David Bott, SCI’s Head of Innovation. “The new business model will aim to reduce the need for imported fossil fuel material. Instead, the consortium will build a new, more sustainable supply chain whilst also mitigating waste emissions.”
Unilever’s Home Care business has already piloted products using captured carbon emissions such as OMO laundry detergent in China, Sunlight hand dishwash in South Africa and Coral+ laundry detergent in Germany.
The power of partnership
This is, however, the first initiative that has committed to finding solutions that could work at scale and provide the step change needed to ensure that the UK, and in time the world, reaches its net zero targets.
“This is a game-changing opportunity to accelerate action and rewire the chemicals value chain to be less reliant on fossil fuels. It’s a bold ambition and one that, at Unilever, we have been publicly calling for action on over the last two years,” says Project Lead Ian Howell, Unilever’s Home Care Science and Technology R&D Director.
“No single company can do this alone and so to have the power of 15 manufacturers and academics marks a significant step forward not only for the UK, but globally too.”
[1] https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2021/world-first-laundry-capsule-in-market-made-from-industrial-carbon-emissions/
[2] Size of the UK chemicals and pharmaceuticals industry according to the Chemical Industries Association
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