Green chemistry: opportunities for a low carbon economy
From efficient process to smarter products, Scotland's chemicals industry has a chance to be one of the greenest in the world.
The transition to a low carbon economy offers an intriguing chance for Scotland's chemicals industry to become one of the world's greenest — green chemistry being an expression used to describe the minimisation of environmental impacts and hazards from making and using chemical products.
Greater efficiency during chemicals production, and the use of biomaterials for feedstock and fuels can reduce the sector’s own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while new chemical products can lower GHGs in other industries.
Scottish Enterprise (SE) and Chemicals Sciences Scotland (CSS) have been working with other partners on a number of potentially transformational projects in this regard.
SE is helping to put together a bid for a biotechnology centre of excellence in the Grangemouth area to combine academic know-how with commercial R&D.
Other opportunities identified in an SE report for CSS include developing and making innovative products, processes and solutions to reduce GHG emissions over a total product life cycle and through use of industrial biotechnology; and developing CO2 as a synthetic feedstock for polycarbonates and fuels.
The Rowett Institute in Aberdeen and the Midlothian based biotech company Ingenza are meanwhile looking at how microbial enzymes in the stomachs of ruminants could be used industrially to “digest” plant and tree matter to produce sustainable alternatives to petrochemical derived products such as fuel, commodity chemicals and fine chemicals.
A report by leading research consultancy Optimat for SE has identified opportunities in: bio-based chemicals and fuels; speciality dyes and pigments; catalysis; fuel cell materials; industrial biotechnology; food additives; and nanoscale chemical processing.
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