Chemical technologies underpin almost every aspect of our lives, from the energy we use to the materials we rely on and the medications we take. The UK chemical industry generates £73.3 billion revenue and employs 161,000 highly skilled workers. It is highly diverse (therefore resilient) with SMEs and microbusinesses making up a remarkable 96% of the sector. Today's global chemicals industry is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and consumes 20% of oil and gas as carbon feedstock to make products. Decarbonisation (defossilisation) of the chemicals sector is, therefore, urgently required, but to do so presents major technical and societal challenges. New sustainable chemical technologies, enabled by new synthesis, catalysis, reaction engineering, digitalisation and sustainability assessment, are needed. In order to ensure that the UK develops a resource efficient, resilient and sustainable economy underpinned by chemical manufacturing, developments in chemical technologies must be closely informed by whole systems approaches to measure and minimise environmental footprints, understand supply chains and assess economic and technological viability, using techniques such as life cycle assessment and material flow analysis. Lack of access to experts in science and engineering with a holistic understanding of sustainable systems is widely and publicly recognised as a significant risk. It is therefore extremely timely to establish a new EPSRC CDT in Sustainable Chemical Technologies that fully integrates a whole systems approach to training and world leading research in an innovation-driven context. This CDT will train the next generation of leaders in sustainable chemical technologies with new skills to address the growing demand for highly skilled PhD graduates with the ability to develop and transfer sustainable practices into industry and society. The new CDT will be a unique and vibrant focus of innovative doctoral training in the UK by taking full advantage of two exciting new developments at Bath. First, the CDT will be embedded in our new Institute for Sustainability (IfS) which has evolved from the internationally leading Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies (CSCT) and which fully integrates whole systems research and sustainable chemical technologies - two world-leading research groupings at Bath - under one banner. Second, the CDT will operate in close partnership with our recently established Swindon-based Innovation Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (iCAST, www.iCAST.org.uk) a £17M partnership for the rapid translation of university research to provide a dynamic innovation-focused context for PhD training in the region. Our fresh and dynamic approach has been co-created with key industrial, research, training and civic partners who have indicated co-investment of over £17M of support. This unique partnership will ensure that a new generation of highly skilled, entrepreneurial, innovative PhD graduates is nurtured to be the leaders of tomorrow's green industrial revolution in the UK.

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: