Unlocking biocatalytic hydrogenation for bulk chemical manufacture

**HydRegen** is a 2021 spin-out from the University of Oxford's Department of Chemistry.

**Our vision:** The HydRegen technologies offer the potential for cleaner, safer, faster and cheaper chemical manufacture.

We expect our technologies to play a part in the UK chemicals sector meeting ambitious Net Zero emissions targets (by 2050) and increasing adoption of enabling technologies such as Industrial Biocatalysis and continuous flow process.

Currently we are addressing challenges in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and speciality chemicals (e.g. flavours and fragrances). However, these high-value chemicals are typically required only at a small scale.

**Focus:** In this project, we tackle challenges with using our technologies in the manufacture of bulk chemicals -- that is, the chemicals that underpin all manufacturing: '_businesses who make chemical products and solutions are integral \[...to ca\]96% of all manufactured goods'_ (source: CIA). These low-value chemicals are required at a large scale, therefore the potential benefits of improving sustainability are maximised.

To enter the low-value, high-volume bulk chemical market, we first need to lower the cost-of-production of our technology -- a biocatalyst system that allows companies to replace toxic heavy metals and decrease waste produced by typical bio-processes - to provide a resource and energy efficient 'slot-in' alternative to state-of-the-art processes.

Next, we select a demonstrator process (case-study), the manufacture of a bulk chemical that is used for the production of drugs, polymers and consumer products. At present there is no UK-based manufacture of this chemical, but we hope to develop a process than enables cost-competitive manufacture in the UK.