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The CIRCARB (Circular and Biogenic Carbon Pathways for a Sustainable Future) project is a four-year programme led by Aston University that will look into reducing fossil fuels use across chemicals, construction materials and plastics sectors.
ľ¹ÏÊÓƵ will be working alongside Aston University, the University of Edinburgh, and more than 26 industry partners for the project.
Experts from Loughborough University will lead the chemical sector theme and develop Digital Carbon Passports to trace, verify and optimise embedded carbon across material lifecycles.
The team will be working with industrial partners such as Croda, a British chemicals company, to develop and demonstrate novel catalytical pathways to derived platform chemicals from sustainable biomass and CO2.
The UK chemicals industry is worth around £30 billion and exports more than £54 billion, yet it currently sources about 90% of its carbon from fossil feedstocks. CIRCARB researchers will develop catalytic routes that convert biomass-derived bio-oils and captured COâ‚‚ into chemicals such as olefins and methanol, aiming to reduce hydrogen use and improve overall carbon efficiency.
The project will also feature experts looking into construction materials and plastics.
Construction contributes around 6% of UK GDP, with cement production alone responsible for an estimated 7.3 million tonnes of COâ‚‚ each year. CIRCARB will explore routes to make carbon-negative aggregates from heated farm waste, creating materials that can store COâ‚‚.
The plastics sector generates more than £32 billion in annual turnover, but is associated with an estimated 26 million tonnes of COâ‚‚-equivalent lifecycle emissions. CIRCARB will use microbes to convert waste such as potato peel and used cooking oil into biodegradable bioplastics for packaging.
Together, these three sectors support nearly three million jobs and contribute more than £90 billion in economic value.
CIRCARB will run from September 2026 and aims to support the UK’s transition to a more sustainable, circular industrial economy.
Dr Jonathan Wagner, Reader in Circular Economy Engineering at ľ¹ÏÊÓƵ, said of the project: “This project will develop critical insights and solutions to eliminating fossil-derived carbon from essential products and materials in the chemical, construction and plastic industries. Working across multiple sectors will help us to transfer knowledge and optimise allocation of limited resources to maximise impact.”
Dr Muhammad Imran, the CIRCARB project lead and a reader in energy systems at Aston University, said: “Achieving net zero is not just about the energy we use but is about the materials we make. Fossil carbon is embedded in the structure of the plastics, chemicals, and construction materials on which modern life depends, and those emissions cannot be resolved through electrification alone.
“CIRCARB brings together world-class academic expertise, a genuinely committed industry coalition, and a rigorous systems approach to tackle this challenge at the scale it deserves.”