A chemical manufacturing hub is replacing oil and gas with waste, air, and water, and running its processes on renewable electricity instead of heat. The SCHEMA hub addresses a fundamental problem: the UK’s chemical industry is centralised, fossil-fuel dependent, and vulnerable to supply chain shocks. It currently produces everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals using petrochemicals, generating significant carbon emissions. SCHEMA aims to redesign this entire system from the ground up. If successful, it will create a flexible, digital manufacturing network that turns captured carbon dioxide, plant waste, and recycled materials into new chemicals and polymers. This would directly affect supply chains for transport, construction, electronics, energy storage, and consumer goods—industries that currently rely on imported fossil feedstocks. The hub also integrates sustainability assessments from the start, so new materials are designed for recycling or biodegradation rather than disposal. This is applied fundamental science: the research spans catalysis, electrochemistry, polymer science, process engineering, and digital automation, all coordinated to deliver a net-zero chemical manufacturing sector.
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The Sustainable Chemicals and Materials Manufacturing Hub (SCHEMA) will transform current centralised, fossil-based petrochemicals manufacturing into a sustainable, flexible and digital industry; replacing oil and gas with raw materials from wastes, air and water, driving processes with renewable electricity rather than heat and integrating advances in and computation and information technology to design future materials for functionality and sustainability throughout their life cycles. SCHEMA will deliver UK supply chain resilience and manufacturing sector interconnectivity from chemicals to polymers. By exploiting synergies between diverse industry users, SCHEMA empowers high-growth 'downstream' businesses in transport, energy generation/storage, construction, electronics and fast-moving consumer goods to reach net-zero emissions. This vision requires both a critical mass of diverse research expertise and focussed academic-industry collaboration. SCHEMA convenes experts in sustainable chemistry, process engineering, polymer science and digital technologies from the Universities of Oxford, Bath, Cambridge, Cardiff, Liverpool, Centre for Process Innovation, National Composites Centre, 2 Local Enterprise Partnerships, 25 companies and international partners to co-deliver innovative research, commercialisation and manufacturing advances for a net-zero chemical manufacturing future. Led by Prof Charlotte Williams, SCHEMA augments existing Future Manufacturing Hubs by focussing on interconnected, fundamental research to address four inter-connected sustainable chemical manufacturing Grand Challenges: Transform renewable resources & wastes, with renewable power, to chemicals & polymers. Develop innovative manufacturing processes adaptable for future operations. Integrate digital and information technologies to maximise sustainability and resilience. Design products for life-cycle sustainability, i.e. re-manufacturing, recycling and, in some cases, biodegradation to keep sustainable carbon recirculating. SCHEMA will deliver these through five inter-linked research work packages (WPs) across the manufacturing supply chain: Catalysis and Renewable Power: Selective, scalable and efficient methods to transform air (CO2, water, O2) and wastes into chemical intermediates and monomers. Processes must integrate with renewables, exploiting novel electrochemistry and engineering. Digital and Information Technologies: High efficiency manufacturing delivered through innovative chemistry, in situ/operando analyses, computational feedback loops and automation. Polymerizations and Application Development: Transforming 'green' chemical intermediates into sustainable polymers, elastomers, resins and adhesives. Process Chemistry and Engineering: Developing reactor and process engineering, scalable processes and purification designs for sustainable multi-phase manufacturing process chemistry and engineering. Sustainability Assessments: Assessment, benchmarking and standardisation of new manufacturing processes and products using leading sustainability and techno-economic models. Research integrated and prioritised for technical and theoretical breakthroughs. SCHEMA will integrate industry into these five themes via:
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