Research transforming carbon emissions into household products offers chance for UK to lead in sustainable material manufacturing

Leading industrial chemists share results of scientific breakthrough that converts carbon emissions into household products and call for additional support to scale-up project that has potential to defossilise global supply-chains

17 June 2025 Groundbreaking UK research released today (Tuesday) demonstrates that carbon captured from industrial emissions can be transformed into sustainable household products – marking a major step towards a circular economy.

An Innovate-UK-sponsored Flue2Chem project, uniting seventeen organisations ranging from Unilever and BASF to emerging start-ups and universities, has developed innovative chemistry to convert carbon dioxide emissions captured from UPM and Holmen operated biogenic papermills in Ayrshire and Cumbria into chemicals key in the manufacture of household products like detergents and cleaning agents.

Flue2Chem proved that ingredients made from ethanol, ethylene oxide and long-chain fatty alcohols perform as well as fossil-derived equivalents, offering a viable route to defossilise supply chains.

Over 5% of the world’s carbon from fossil fuel is currently used to make materials such as plastics, textiles and the components of many household goods we use every day. When these products degrade, they contribute an estimated average three billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere globally each year.

"The chemistry works, the collaboration has been groundbreaking, and the industry is ready to move," said Sharon Todd, Chief Executive of SCI. "Now we need the right policy framework to unlock investment and enable the UK to lead in sustainable materials manufacturing."

However, there are significant hurdles to scaling up this scientific breakthrough. One major barrier is the limited availability of affordable green hydrogen, essential for critical chemical reactions in the process.

Beyond hydrogen, the UK also faces a shortage of pilot-scale and commercial production facilities, forcing companies to rely on overseas infrastructure. Without domestic capabilities for processing captured carbon into viable chemical feedstocks, UK firms risk falling behind international competitors.

For this breakthrough to translate into economic success, project partners have identified potential targeted policy measures, including:

• Investment in hydrogen production to lower costs and improve accessibility for industrial applications.

• Expansion of UK pilot-scale facilities to support domestic R&D and accelerate commercial readiness.

• Regulatory incentives, similar to the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandate, creating market demand for renewable chemicals.

With successful trials demonstrating the potential of captured CO₂ as a sustainable feedstock, Flue2Chem partners are now focused on how to scale up these innovations and integrate them into real-world supply chains.

Ian Howell, Advanced Material & Surface Science Director, Unilever said:

“Powered by cross-sector collaboration, Flue2Chem shows how captured carbon can be turned into key ingredients for everyday products without compromising on performance.  This is an important step in our ambition to defossilise supply chains, and, with the right support, this innovation can help build a low-carbon, circular economy.”

Dr Darren Budd, Managing Director, BASF plc added:

“BASF is proud to have contributed to the work of the Flue2Chem consortium. We are committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and know that this can only be achieved through collaboration. Projects like Flue2Chem provide us with the opportunity to work across the value chain to develop the technologies required to achieve this.”

Beena Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of CCU International

“At CCU International, we’re proud to have deployed the technology for the Flue2Chem project, capturing industrial CO₂ emissions from both Holmen Papermill and UPM Caledonian.  With the right policy support, we have a real opportunity to unlock a new generation of sustainable products, while accelerating the scale-up of innovative technologies at the pace required to meet our Net Zero goals and drive global supply chain decarbonisation.”