Green chemical science for a sustainable future

Globally, humanity faces many challenges such as pollution, resource depletion, energy demands, inadequate food supply and lack of clean water.

Our research aims to address these challenges by using Green Chemical Science approaches to develop sustainable solutions. We focus on the use of renewable feedstocks, methods of pollutant remediation, designing environmentally benign chemical synthesis and reducing waste in food production and storage.

The use of renewable feedstocks

Currently, most of the world's chemical products come from non-renewable petrochemical sources. Our research focuses on developing new technologies for extracting and preparing chemical products from alternative renewable feedstocks, which include the use of primary industry products and wastes.

Sustainable chemical synthesis

Reducing the environmental impact of chemical synthesis is an important research topic for our school. We investigate the design of new, more efficient catalysts, the development of alternative environmentally benign solvents and the use of novel synthetic methods.

Reducing and reusing food waste

Food waste is an underutilised resource and represents a significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions with important social consequences. Our approach to combating food waste includes developing methods to increase the shelf-life of food and the use of food waste as a feedstock in the preparation of new materials and chemical products.

Remediation of pollutants

We are developing new methods of eliminating environmental pollutants. Our research includes the development of new catalysts, materials and methods for the removal and degradation of environmentally hazardous compounds, especially those found in soil and water. We also investigate methods for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

Renewable energy production and storage

To alleviate the environmental impact of most current energy generation methods, we must produce new approaches for the generation and storage of energy using renewable, non-polluting sources. The focus of our research is on the design of materials capable of preparing energy carriers, such as hydrogen from renewable sources and the development of new approaches for energy storage.