Blog: The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence
Tackling global challenges – exploring The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence
As the process sector’s Net Zero journey evolves, there is a growing need for the adoption of greener and cleaner processes, and green product design.
According to the International Energy Agency, the chemical industry is the third largest industry subsector in terms of direct CO2 emissions, and there is pressure on the sector to reduce its carbon footprint, as well as minimise other environmental impacts.
Building expertise in green chemistry – the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances – can play a key role in helping industry step up to these challenges.
The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence
Part of the University of York, the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCCE) is a world-leading academic facility for pioneering pure and applied green and sustainable chemical research. It’s an international flagship, providing innovative solutions for a circular, sustainable economy, and works closely with the chemical, energy, food, pharmaceutical and related industries.
The GCCE is led by Professor Helen Sneddon, and has more than 20 years of experience in green chemistry, and is one of two collaborative partners behind the PINZ CDT along with the Process Intensification Group at Newcastle University. Their combined academic strengths and state-of-the-art facilities are at the heart of the PINZ CDT’s work in contributing to safer, cleaner and more efficient processes, and training the next generation of process sector talent.
The GCCE’s track record of interfacing with industry is extensive… and its recent work on polymer research is just one example of this. With backing from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)’s Prosperity Partnerships programme, the GCCE is collaborating with Croda International Plc and The University of Nottingham to develop novel, sustainable polymers for liquid formulations, and is partnering with Synthomer to develop biobased polymers using feedstocks that do not compete with food.
A hotbed of green chemistry expertise
More than 60 members make up the GCCE, with a team of academic staff supported by a group of postdoctoral researchers. And the centre is home to world-renowned green chemistry experts, who are at the forefront of their fields. The centre collaborates with academics across the Department of Chemistry and University more widely aligned with its research areas and purpose.
The GCCE’s core research areas are:
Renewable feedstocks The centre has built up a strong track-record of valorisation of biobased feedstocks into chemicals, materials and (bio)energy. It has pioneered research into the use of microwaves to selectively activate components of biomass, leading to more controlled decomposition processes.
Green synthesis The GCCE team are undertaking research to develop more benign reaction protocols for common synthetic transformations, and champion the synthesis of bio-derived platform molecules and their conversion to sustainable products.
Sustainable technologies The GCCE is exploring where technologies such as enzyme catalysis, microwave processing, flow chemistry, and mechanochemistry can provide tangible sustainability benefits over current manufacturing protocols.
Design for reuse / degradation / recovery The GCCE works with partners to design biodegradable polymers, and explore the impact of polymers in anaerobic digesters, and conducts research into the recovery of valuable and/or harmful components from the environment.
Facilities to transform research
Engaging with the PINZ CDT opens the door to a wealth of facilities at The University of York, giving industry partners the technology and equipment they need to expand and accelerate research.
The suite of specialist reactors available through the GCCE include high pressure, supercritical carbon dioxide reactor, microwave, membrane and multipoint reactors, and its analytical capabilities include: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; UV-visible spectroscopy; thermal analysis; IR spectroscopy; porosimetry; NMR; high performance liquid chromatography; gas chromatography; and powder and crystal X-ray diffraction.
Research into the application of microwave technology is supported by the centre’s dedicated laboratory scale microwave facility, where reactions can be taken from 1mL to 1000mL scale under hydrolysis or pyrolysis conditions.
In addition, PINZ CDT industry partners can access the Biorenewables Development Centre, a research, development and demonstration biorefining centre, founded from a partnership between the GCCE and the University of York’s Centre for Novel Agricultural Products. The Biorenewables Development Centre develops methods at the laboratory scale, and scales-up processes to demonstrate their commercial potential, typically at the 1-100 litre or 1-100 kg scale. Its capabilities are wide-ranging: raw materials characterisation, system development, processing and product evaluation are supported by a suite of equipment including pilot-scale continuous centrifuges, HPLC and ICP-MS systems, bioreactors, thermochemical equipment and a Flavourtech spinning cone.
And researchers can also draw on the instrumentation and expertise of the York Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry (CoEMS), and The Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, a collaborative venture between the University of York and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) which enables studies relating to the science of air pollution, stratospheric ozone depletion and climate change.
Advancing the development of sustainable feedstocsk and innovative chemistries
The GCCE is supporting ground-breaking research projects through the PINZ CDT and is helping organisations – from specialist lab equipment providers to multinational consumer goods manufacturers – move innovations forward and unlock new opportunities.
Below are some of the projects which are drawing on the GCCE’s expertise and facilities.
Accelerating catalytic reaction optimisation through an innovative reactor design for high throughput experimentation, with Labman Automation – this project collaboration is developing novel metal-free catalysis for the preparation of functional fluorinated molecules, and involve synthesis, catalyst development and mechanistic studies.
Greener Solvents for more sustainable processes, with Reckitt – a PhD project which aims to modernise the practice of green solution chemistry by applying statistical thermodynamic fluctuation theory to the practice of solvent substitution.
Revolutionising High-Throughput Experimentation for Sustainable Catalysis, with Johnson Matthey – a project that addresses the challenges in reproducibility and scalability in HTE, by investigating the HTE workflow and focusing on Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling (SMCC) and Buchwald-Hartwig amination (BHA) reactions.
Ethyl Lactate as a Green Solvent – Processes, Performance and Air Quality Impacts, With Thomas Swan – focusing on the bioderived solvent, Ethyl lactate, this project will look at solvent benchmarking experiments across a range of applications, green synthetic chemistry and simulations.
Find out how you can uncover new solutions, develop your own Net Zero specialists, and move your innovations forward with the support of The Process Intensification Group and The Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence.
Contact: pinz.cdt@newcastle.ac.uk
