Industry giants target flue gases for sustainable chemicals

As well as driving energy production, hydrocarbons are widely used as a chemical feedstock for a huge range of manufactured goods including electronics, clothing and household chemicals such as detergents. Finding alternatives to this fossil carbon is essential if manufacturing is to become sustainable.

Backed by £2.68m from Innovate UK, Flue2Chem will seek to capture industrial waste gases and convert them into alkoxyl surfactants, a chemical building block that form the basis of many household chemicals and coatings. The two-year programme – which features 15 academic and industrial partners - is aiming to develop a new value chain that could ultimately help the UK cut 15–20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. 

“This is a game-changing opportunity to accelerate action and rewire the chemicals value chain to be less reliant on fossil fuels,” said project lead Ian Howell, Unilever’s Home Care Science and Technology R&D director. “It’s a bold ambition and one that, at Unilever, we have been publicly calling for action on over the last two years.