The Government’s Transforming Foundation Industries Research and Innovation (TransFIRe) Hub, has a focus on UK manufacturing and its supply chain, specifically, those companies that are part of the chemicals, cement, ceramics, glass, metals, and paper industries.
Northumbria University, which has been recognised as Modern University of the Year 2025 by The Times and also recorded the biggest rise in research power of any UK university for the second time in a row in REF2021, is ideally positioned to facilitate real impact through knowledge exchange and collaboration for organisations of all sizes, from multinationals to SMEs, based in the North East of England.
According to a report by BiGGAR Economics, Northumbria’s research and knowledge exchange activities contributed £181 million to the UK economy, supporting over 3,100 jobs in the academic year 2021-2022.
As part of the consortium, Professor Justin Perry and Professor Matt Unthank, from Northumbria’s Department of Applied Sciences, led research focussed on the bulk chemicals sector. Their research has showcased that it is not only possible but, also, potentially profitable, to take zero value waste from one industry and turn it into valuable feedstocks or components for another industry.
One of the collaborations established through the research was with coatings specialists AkzoNobel and Jayplas, a specialist in post-consumer plastic recycling, reprocessing and manufacturing. The project showcases what is achievable by working across discipline boundaries in the manufacturing, polymer and construction industries.
The team has shown that it is possible to further optimise current plastic bottle recycling technology, which recycles a plastic called PET, used in single-use water and soft drink bottles, by taking its currently unrecyclable waste and transforming it into a novel, high-performance protective coating, for industrial applications, using only sustainable feedstocks. This demonstrates it is viable to convert a waste material into a high-value, high-performance product which can supply a coating market with global consumption reported as high as one million tonnes per annum.
