NOSRC-Industry day: An
Introduction
Ramside Hall, Durham
24th April 2012
Andy Whiting
Email: andy.whiting@durham.ac.uk
What is NORSC ?
NORSC (NORthern Sustainable Chemistry)
• New regional initiative, initially between 4 N8 universities:
• Durham (CSCP - Centre for Sustainable Chemical Processes)
• Leeds (iPRD – Institute of Process research & Development)
• Newcastle (School of Chemistry and Centre of Excellence in Catalysis
and Process Integration)
• York (Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, Department of Chemistry)
• Further N8 and other northern universities contacted
• Lead/contact academics
• Durham - Prof Andy Whiting (andy.whiting@durham.ac.uk) & Dr Phil
Dyer
• Leeds - Profs John Blacker (j.blacker@leeds.ac.uk) & Chris Raynor
• Newcastle - Profs Mike Green (mike.green@newcastle.ac.uk) & Mike
North
• York - Profs James Clark (james.clark@york.ac.uk) & Duncan
Macquarie
NORSC aims and objectives
• Do things better, by doing them together!
• Identify and develop networking, research and teaching opportunities
• Develop joint research/collaborations/grant applications/projects
• Organise joint scientific meetings (PhD project, academia-industry
meetings, major research meetings)
• Identify training and education opportunities; work towards joint PG
training (distance learning), regional education programmes & skills
training
• Create dialogues with NGOs, funding councils, regional and national
agencies; positively influence research and collaboration agenda
NORSC networking/communication activities
• Bringing together researchers, both from academia and industry in areas of
catalysis, green chemistry, novel methodology, clean organic synthesis
chemistry for energy, i.e. developing wide-ranging sustainable chemical
processes
• Providing a forum for discussion, research presentations and other joint
activities, both academic and industrial
• Disseminating information on funding opportunities and coordinating/supporting
and assisting new funding applications
• Providing an interface for access to expertise and equipment
• Creating an environment to engender the formation of new research
collaborations
• Supporting and creating regional networks and organisations to develop joint
activities and collaborations (e.g. DEI, CPI, NEPIC)
NORSC – survey of capabilities and opportunities
• Carried out 2010/11
• Considerable complimentarity between various research groups, centres and
institutes
• Basis for developing future activities/maximising opportunities
• Summary document available for download from respective websites (CSCP,
Newcastle Chemistry, etc.)
• Thanks to Dr Andy Wells (formerly AZ Charnwood, now Charnwood Technical
Consulting – Email: charnwoodtechnicalconsulting@gmail.com)
• Supported by METRC (Sam Whitehouse) and N8 (Sarah Jackson)
The NORSC offering: High level skills,
expertise & experience
Biological Chemistry
Materials: Synthesis and Structure
Sustainable Chemistry and Catalysis
Theory and Dynamics
Inorganic and Materials Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Asymmetric Synthesis
Physical Chemistry
Colour Science
Nanoscience
Process Research and Development
Biomedical and Health
Atmospheric Science
Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry
Structural Chemistry and Spectroscopy
Analytical Chemistry
Green Chemistry
Heterogeneous Catalysis
Homogeneous catalysis
Inorganic Chemistry
Materials Chemistry
Protein Structure and Function
Optical and Molecular Electronics
Marine Chemistry
Photochemistry
Biofuel Chemistry
Biomass Processing
The NORSC offering: Synthesis
Synthetic organic chemistry
Novel synthetic methodology
Dynamic combinatorial libraries
Novel, greener reagents
Novel C-C bond forming reactions
Greener and more sustainable
chemical technologies
Medicinal Chemistry
Natural product synthesis
High-throughput synthesis
Synthesis of chiral compounds
Organofluorine chemistry and
fluorinated compounds
Safe synthesis using highly reactive
and hazardous reagents
Water- based synthetic processes and
water-tolerant reagents
Direct (green) amide synthesis
Physical organic chemistry
Asymmetric transformations
Process chemistry
In silico route design
Synthesis of pharmaceuticals
Radical chemistry
Radiolabelled compounds
PET ligands
Imaging
Labelled bioactive molecules
Radiopharmaceuticals
Biological imaging
The NORSC offering: Hetero- and homogeneous metal, organo- and bio-catalysis
Polymer chemistry/metathesis
Supported catalysts
Olefin hydroformylation and
hydroamination
C-H activation/direct borylation
Novel bifunctional catalysts
Novel catalysis for direct amide
formation
Catalysis in greener solvents
Activation and utilisation of CO2 as a
feedstock
C-C bond-forming reactions
Alkoxycarbonylation
Oxidation catalysis
Organocatalysis
Lewis acid catalysis
Metal alkoxides
Catalyst immobilisation technologies and
recycling methods
Supporting homogeneous catalysis
Maximising sustainability through
efficient catalysis
Biocatalysis and bioprocessing
Organometallics
New ligands and coordination chemistry
The NORSC offering: Green chemistry
and materials
Liquid crystals – synthesis,
characterisation and application.
Novel materials
Functional nanomaterials and
nanoparticles.
Dendrimer and supramolecular
chemistry
Novel coatings
VOC-free emulsion polymer coatings
Polymer chemistry, greener monomers
and polymers
Colour and dye chemistry
SC-CO2 as reaction medium and novel
phase separations/work-up
Crystal engineering
Physical and analytical electrochemistry
Green energy
Renewable smart materials and platform
molecules from biomass
Greener consumer products
Improved 1st and 2nd generation biofuels
Recovery and recycling of valuable
and/or rare molecules and elements
Heterogeneous catalysis for biofuels,
nanocomposite materials and
sustainable oilfield chemistry
Fuel cell technologies
Hydrogen storage technologies
Integrated production of energy and
chemicals from biomass waste
Biorefining
Photochemistry and photocatalysis
Photonic and electronic materials
Ionic liquids
The NORSC offering: Engineering
& technology
High pressure chemistry facilities to 5 L
& 300 atm
Autoclaves (stirred) up to 350 atm
Reactors for catalytic studies equipped
with IR cells and FTIR
Catalytic microreactors
High pressure, small volume flow
systems (100 atm)
Direct fluorination reactors
Hydrogenation equipment – flow and
batch technologies
Batch processing to 50 L (glass vessels
equipped for PAT analysis)
Microwave reactor systems
High pressure supercritical CO2 reaction
and extraction facilities (small and large
scale)
Supercritical CO2 particle
formation/crystallisation equipment
SC-CO2 chromatography
Photochemical reactor systems
Automated parallel reactor systems
Corrosion analysis
Electrochemical plating
Fuel cell test systems
Gel permeation chromatography
In situ paint and polymer degradation by
IR analysis
In situ electrochemical FTIR
spectroscopy
Reaction calorimetry
Current/voltage/time techniques
(voltammetry and a.c. impedance
Viscometry
Wear analysis
The NORSC offering: summary
Unique-multi-university collaboration
Highly complimentary skills and expertise
Wide-ranging sustainable chemical technologies
Project design, management and consultancy
High level research services and instrumentation
Training opportunities
‘Can-do’ approach to research & development
Developing a full N8 participation