Pioneer Presents: Planetary Health – Green Carbon for the UK Chemicals Sector
Hear our very own Mark Corbett speak about Scaling up your biobased processes.
Join us for this exciting Pioneer Presents event to hear from experts across the UK Chemicals sector and their endeavours to become more sustainable, through the development and deployment of renewable carbon feedstocks.
We live in a world driven by linear economies, where we take resources, make things, consume them, and throw them away. This way of living uses finite raw materials and produces vast waste. In contrast, in a circular carbon economy, things made from carbon, such as chemicals and plastics, are created and consumed in a way that minimises our use of virgin-fossil resources, cuts waste and reduces carbon emissions. We must accelerate our transition to a truly circular carbon economy.
The chemicals and plastics sector are responsible for nearly 10% of global GHG emissions, with the use of fossil carbon from below ground, being the main cause of anthropogenic climate change. Reductions in the inflow of further fossil carbon from the ground into our system must be reduced as quickly as possible and by high volumes. While the UK rightly emphasises reuse and avoidance, the chemical and material industries are essentially only possible with carbon-based feedstocks – and unlike the energy sector, the chemicals sector cannot be “decarbonised”. Instead, this industry must be de-fossilised.
Date: 30th April 2024
Time: 9:30am until 4pm
Location: Wilton Centre, Redcar, TS10 4RF
Draft Agenda
| Time | Item | Presenter |
| 09:30 | Coffee and Registration | |
| 10:00 | Welcome and introduction to Pioneer Group | Pioneer Group |
| 10:15 | Overview of Planetary Health | Jen Vanderhoven |
| 10:30 | Plenary: Alternative feedstocks for the UK chemicals and materials industry | Adrian Higson, NNFCC |
| Session One: Chemical Recycling | ||
| 11:00 | Polymer recycling technology for the textiles industry | TBC |
| 11:20 | Pyrolysis and circularity of film plastics | TBC |
| 11:30 | Bringing An End To Single Use Plastic | TBC |
| 11:40 | Diverting plastic waste away from incineration | Abi Mountain, Itero |
| 11:55 | Engineering Biology for reducing plastic pollution | Professor Pickford, University of Portsmouth |
| Session Two: Carbon Capture and Utilisation | ||
| 12:30 | Recycling carbon with biomanufacturing | Anne Delille, Lanzatech |
| 12:45 | Chem2Flue Project | David Bott, SCI |
| 13:00 | The role of CCU for the NE Process Cluster | Ryan Siddall, Technical Manager, NEPIC |
| 13:15 | Industrial gases for chemicals | TBC |
| 13:30 | Converting waste derived GHG into chemicals, fuels and animal feed | TBC |
| 13:45 | Lunch and Networking | |
| Session Three: Biomass for Biochemicals and Bioenergy | ||
| 14:30 | A hierarchy for biomass utilisation | Anna Zhenova, Green Rose Chemistry |
| 15:00 | Biorefineries as a hub for a de-fossilized chemical industry | Chris Holt, Ensus |
| 15:15 | Producing Carbon-Neutral, Renewable Chemicals From UK-Sourced Biomass | Andy West, Sonichem |
| 15:30 | Net zero acrylics | Mark Reynolds, Mitsubishi Chemicals |
| 15:45 | Scaling up your bio-based process | Mark Corbett, Biorenewables Development Centre |
| 16:00 | Coffee and Networking | |
| 16:30 | Close | |
Let's work together
We have worked on 1,500 bio-based projects to date
We have several ways to work with us, including business advisory programmes and self-funded commercial options. We even have the option for you to hire our state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and office space.
