ScotCHEM

National Materials Innovation Strategy

Wednesday 13 September 2023 by Mary Woodcock Kroble

The Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials has appointed an expert team comprising ScotCHEM, Perspective Economics and Urban Foresight to engage stakeholders across the materials science community in the development of a new National Materials Innovation Strategy.

ScotCHEM is the project lead and, with the team, will expand on the Framework for the strategy, working across the research community to develop both the econometric data and the wider underpinning evidence necessary for scoping, definition and appropriate groupings of:

National and industrial sector priorities, including trends and drivers, market needs and industrial sectors
Key application and process developments to which materials innovation can contribute via value-creation opportunities
Material innovations to support these applications and processes and further highlight the need for cross-sector collaborations
The associated non-technological supporting enablers, such as skills development, regulation and finance

The project team will work under the direction of the new Materials Innovation Leadership Group, which has been established by Royce to oversee and champion the development of this important new Strategy that will tackle the major challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the UK.

Development of the Strategy will run from now until the end of 2024, with the first stakeholder workshops being planned for later this year.

Materials underpin manufacturing, and the UK is one of the largest global manufacturing nations, contributing £203 billion every year to GVA and supporting 5 million jobs. 84% of this manufacturing takes place outside of London and the South East.

We look forward to working with industry, government, academia and the 3rd sector to develop this significant strategy for the UK.

For enquiries, please contact NSMI@st-andrews.ac.uk

Keep up to date with the Strategy development – sign up to the Henry Royce Institute Newsletter

ScotCHEM Polymer & Soft Materials Conference II

Monday 12 June 2023Wednesday 8 March 2023 by Suzanne Halden

Join an amazing line-up of speakers at the 2023 ScotCHEM Polymers and Soft Materials Conference on 4 May, at the University of Edinburgh.

Download programme (pdf)

Speakers

Dr Amit Kumar ‘Homogeneous (De)hydrogenative Catalysis for A Circular Economy’ – University of St Andrews

Dr Ruaraidh McIntosh ‘Balancing Sustainability with Activity in Polymerisation Catalysis’ – Heriot Watt University

Dr Paul Hunt ‘Practicality of Making Sustainable Polymers’ – Croda International

Dr Emily Draper ‘Using Supramolecular Assembly for Flexible Organic Materials’ – University of Glasgow

Prof Mike Ingleson ‘Electrophilic borylation as a route to generate deep LUMO / near IR-emitting small molecules and polymers’ – University of Edinburgh

Dr Ketan Pancholi ‘Magnetic Polymer Nanocomposites Incorporating Metal-Organic Frameworks: Tailored Synthesis for Targeted Applications’ – Robert Gordon University

Dr Ross Minty ‘The role of residual stress at the fibre-matrix interface in composite materials’ – University of Strathclyde

Scotland’s Hydrogen Economy

Monday 12 June 2023Thursday 9 February 2023 by Suzanne Halden

First in the ScotCHEM Hydrogen series, bringing together industry, researchers and policymakers to identify opportunities to grow Scotland’s Hydrogen Economy.

Meeting, Tuesday, 23 May, University of St Andrews, Eden Campus, Guardbridge.

Welcome

Monday 12 June 2023Friday 2 September 2022 by Suzanne Halden

Welcome to all new students joining our chemistry departments!

Follow @CHEMScot on Twitter to receive news of all forthcoming events.

Barriers to decarbonising the chemical industries

Monday 12 June 2023Friday 26 August 2022 by Suzanne Halden

In May this year, we brought together key stakeholders from industry, academia, government and the NGO sector to identify key barriers to the decarbonisation of the chemical industries, and potential solutions to those barriers.

Collection of themes examined at the event: Connecting sectors, policy regulation and reporting, infrastructure and supply chains, Education and skills, research, translation, public engagement, just transition, funding.

ScotCHEM is now working with various partners to drive outcomes from the meeting.

Download report (pdf)

Scottish research innovation futures: Just Transition to a Net Zero Carbon Society

Monday 12 June 2023Tuesday 30 November 2021 by Suzanne Halden

ScotCHEM was pleased to partner with RIS, KTN, ETP and SRPe to deliver the 3rd workshop in the series: Just Transition to a Net Zero Carbon Society. The report from the workshop can be accessed from the RIS website, together with the reports from workshops one and two.

Improved Catalyst, Improved Profit

Monday 12 June 2023Monday 14 November 2016 by Suzanne Halden

Ingen GTL and the University of Aberdeen collaborated to create an improved catalyst. The iron catalyst reduces the energy needed for the high-temperature hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, an important industrial process. Thus, any improvement in its efficiency offers an opportunity to profit.

Ingen GTL Ltd contacted the Surface Chemistry and Catalysis Group. The new catalyst required detailed characterisation, optimisation, and scale-up. A Kick Start Award, from Encompass, funded a collaboration with Prof James Anderson.

Varying the catalyst synthesis led to a new version with greatly improved performance. We optimised the catalyst by screening promotor compositions and active metal formulations. We varied the catalyst composition to measure the effect of performance. Finally, we demonstrated that the catalyst can convert a wide range of syngas compositions. This includes syngases produced from both methane and biomass. Other commercial catalysts need feedstocks with controlled composition. Thus, our catalyst has a strong advantage.

As a result of this project, Ingen GTL has expanded its patent portfolio and is now commercialising the technology.

For Richard Hyman, iGTL’s CEO, collaboration with the University of Aberdeen was very important since it allowed their catalyst to undergo a broad a range of test variations, with full access to a reactor and with dedicated personnel . It was also crucial to be able to establish a pathway for improving the catalyst.

The improved catalyst is the foundation of iGTL’s core product, the syngas conversion reactor. The success of the project opens the way for future collaborations between both parties.

Ingen and the University of Aberdeen

Benefits

Improved product with improved catalyst
Advantage over competitors
An ongoing relationship with Chemistry at Aberdeen
New avenues for product development

Funding

The University of Aberdeen and Ingen are grateful to Encompass for support and funding.

Phase Change Materials for Heat Batteries

Wednesday 13 September 2023Monday 31 October 2016 by Suzanne Halden

Sunamp has developed new heat-storage technology using Phase-Change Materials (PCMs).

Sunamp heat batteries store heat and release it on demand to provide space heating and hot water. The technology makes innovative use of PCMs that can store and release heat as they change phase – in much the same way as hand warmers. However, the company faced problems with the poor performance of commercially available PCMs. This reduced the ability of the batteries to store and release heat after multiple charge-discharge cycles.

Interface introduced Sunamp to Professor Colin Pulham and his team at the University of Edinburgh. The team worked with the company to develop additives that extend the battery’s lifetime. Sunamp now markets one of the world’s most efficient heat batteries. The development of these products has underpinned significant company growth. A trial in over 600 households has demonstrated a 20% reduction in the cost of heat.

Sunamp and The University of Edinburgh.

Benefits

Access to expertise to support the development of a commercially viable product.
A strong and ongoing collaboration that has delivered substantial benefits to both partners, society, and the wider economy.
Exchange of highly trained research staff, including those taking permanent posts with Sunamp.

Funding

The partnership has accessed support and funding from Interface, the Energy Technology Partnership, UKRI, DECC, InnovateUK, Diamond Light Source, and the EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account.

Visit the energy technology partnership website

Quality Control for the Hydrogen Supply Chain

Monday 12 June 2023Wednesday 14 September 2016 by Suzanne Halden

Visit the School of Chemistry website at the University of St Andrews

Cascade Technologies is a manufacturer of high-technology laser-based gas analysers. Energy Technology Partnership (ETP) approached Cascade to identify areas for collaboration. Cascade was already investigating emerging markets in hydrogen fuel and carbon capture. Yet, they lacked contacts in the field. The ETP made introductions to relevant academic experts and businesses. Key among these were the Energy Materials Group at the University of St Andrews. It became clear that the emerging hydrogen-fuels sector was an important opportunity. Cascade’s gas analysers are ideal for quality assurance at fuel-cell vehicle refuelling stations. The ETP identified an open funding call from Innovate UK. Together, Cascade and St Andrews set about building a project consortium. The consortium included the National Physical Laboratory, BOC, and ITM Power. The consortium went on to develop a new gas analyser product.

Collaboration with St Andrews has resulted in major benefits for this Scottish SME. They received a grant of £602k from Innovate-UK and are working with new customers in a new market.

Cascade Technologies and the University of St Andrews.