For Net Zero, Businesses Must Include Carbon Waste

Including Carbon Waste in Operations to Achieve Net Zero Industry leaders across the United Kingdom are pooling resources in the first cross-sector collaboration aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Flue2Chem project targets converting industrial waste gases into chemicals that can be used to produce superior and more sustainable consumer products. Carbon emissions typically bring to mind transportation, heavy industry, and power plants. However, it is important to recognize that most of the carbon used to produce nearly everything from mobile phones to cleaning products is also extracted from coal, oil and gas. And these continue to increase. A report published by the Nova Institute and Unilever in April 2021 predicts that demand for fossil-derived chemicals will more than double by 2050. As a result, renewable carbon production must increase 15-fold for fossil carbon use in consumer products to be successfully eliminated.

Carbon waste for chemical production

The key to reaching this goal is finding alternatives. To this end, 15 key industrial players including Unilever, representing the GBP 73 billion UK sector, the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) and BASF have signed a collaboration agreement for a two-year programme committing to cut carbon dioxide emissions from the production process of consumer products. Backed by GBP 2.68 million in funding from Innovate UK, the project will focus on replacing fossil fuel stocks with 'captured' carbon sourced from waste gases of core industries such as metal, glass, paper and chemical production. David Bott, Head of Innovation at SCI, said, "This is an exemplary demonstration of the power of collaborative work. It is a significant step towards the United Kingdom and SCI's vision of advancing the application of chemistry and related sciences in industry for public benefit." "The new business model will aim to reduce the need for imported fossil fuel feedstock. Instead, the consortium will build a new and more sustainable supply chain while reducing waste emissions." Unilever's Home Care business conducted pilot applications using captured carbon emissions in products such as OMO laundry detergent in China, Sunlight hand dishwashing liquid in South Africa, and Coral+ laundry detergent in Germany.

The Power of Partnership

However, this is not the first initiative committed to finding solutions that can work at scale and delivering the step change needed to meet the United Kingdom's and, in time, the world's net zero targets. Ian Howell, Project Lead and Director of Science and Technology Research and Development at Unilever Home Care, said, "This is a game-changing opportunity to accelerate action and restructure the chemicals value chain to be less dependent on fossil fuels. This is a bold ambition we have been calling for explicitly at Unilever over the past two years. Having the backing of 15 manufacturers and academics means no single company can do this alone, and this is a significant step not only for the United Kingdom but globally as well."     Source https://www.unilever.com/news/press-and-media/press-releases/2021/world-first-laundry-capsule-in-market-made-from-industrial-carbon-emissions/ Size of the United Kingdom's chemical and pharmaceutical industry according to the Chemical Industries Association https://www.unilever.com/news/news-search/2023/flue2chem-putting-carbon-waste-to-work-for-net-zero/