Bringing sustainable chemical production forward in central Europe

The international team of academic and industrial partners, led by Dr Lukáš Rýček and Dr Eliška Matoušová from Charles University in Prague, focutilizes on the more sustainable production of key chemicals and pharmaceutical ingredients

Chemicals are essential in modern society. It is unimaginable to exist without them, as they shape everything from healthcare and medicine to materials, energy, and everyday products. Yet their production, utilize, and disposal often entail significant environmental costs. The chemical indusattempt is a major source of CO₂ emissions, with Central Europe alone generating around 20-21 million tonnes annually, mostly due to the sector’s high energy demand. Moreover, the chemical indusattempt heavily relies on fossil resources as both energy inputs and feedstocks. ⁽¹⁾

Among a wide range of chemicals, plastics are critical materials from a sustainability perspective. Nearly half a billion tonnes are produced worldwide each year, of which about 90% are created from fossil resources, while less than 10% are recycled globally (about 20% in Europe, with Central Europe slightly lagging). Recycling is dominated by mechanical methods, which often degrade material quality and limit reutilize.

Chemical recycling offers a promising alternative by breaking down plastics into monomers that can be reutilized to produce materials with virgin-like properties, theoretically in an infinite loop. This enables true circularity. However, these processes are energy- intensive and technically demanding, which currently restricts chemical recycling to about 1% of the global plastic share. ⁽²⁾

Another important segment of the chemical indusattempt is the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which presents its own sustainability challenges. In addition to relying heavily on fossil-derived feedstocks, API manufacturing has significantly higher E-factors than other chemical sectors (25-100 vs. 5-25 for fine chemicals, 1-5 for bulk chemicals, and 0.1 for oil refining). This means that producing 1 kg of an API generates roughly 25-100 kg of waste, mostly solvents. ⁽³⁾ Another key challenge is the low recycling rates of transition metal catalysts, which increase depconcludeence on primary raw materials and contribute to resource depletion and higher emissions.

The GreenChemForCE project

The GreenChemForCE project, part of the InregerCE programme, brings toreceiveher academic, industrial, and public stakeholders from Central Europe with the shared goal of addressing the challenges outlined above. Its mission is to develop strategies for more sustainable chemical production and to implement selected technological solutions across the consortium’s industrial landscape. We envision that the strategy for sustainable chemical production should be based on four basic pillars:

Regional collaboration.
Technology development.
Education.
Legislation.

GreenChemForCE fulfils the first pillar, regional collaboration, by establishing a network of academic and industrial experts across four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia. Within this network, academic partners provide scientific expertise and collaborate closely with indusattempt to solve practical challenges identified by the industrial sector.

Moreover, part of our work focutilizes on advancing the chemical depolymerisation of nylon 6 waste, such as textiles and fishermen’s nets. This activity builds on an industrially implemented process operated by a regional company. It supports its transition toward an intensified, continuous depolymerisation concept aimed at zero-waste operation and improved feedstock flexibility. The regional collaboration is strengthened by supporting the establishment of a local waste supply chain.

The technology development focus

The technology development is the main focus of the GreenChemForCE consortium. Part of the project addresses aspects related to CO₂ capture and utilisation (CCU). Its main objective is optimising the carbonisation process. From a process- engineering perspective, the CO₂ mineralisation routes explored in the project aim not only to reduce emissions but also to convert industrial CO₂ and calcium-containing waste streams into high-value precipitated calcium carbonate, thereby strengthening the economic viability of CCU solutions.

Sustainability in API production is another key focus, centred on the utilisation of biomass, a form of naturally captured carbon, and the minimisation of hazardous waste. We employ biomass-derived building blocks, such as Cyrene, to synthesise pharmaceutically relevant molecules utilized in drug discovery programmes. Efforts are also directed toward solvent optimisation, including replacing conventional solvents with renewable, safer alternatives or implementing aqueous reaction systems, where micellar catalysis enhances the solubility of organic components.

Our pilot activity demonstrates that these systems can be applied to the preparation of industrially relevant pharmaceuticals. Other aspects of the work focus on highly selective biocatalytic formation of amide bonds in a continuous production process. Amide bonds are key bonds in APIs, occurring in approximately 25% of all pharmaceuticals. The strategy offers the potential to eliminate problematic reagents, often associated with chemical routes and the drawbacks of batch operations.

Finally, the recovery of transition metal catalysts from catalytic transformations leading to APIs or their intermediates is another focus of the technological package. We developed robust analytical techniques for tracking palladium in various waste streams a nd demonstrated that up to 98% of the metal can be recovered from palladium-rich fractions.

Education and training, plus legislation

The education and training of the next generation of experts in sustainable technologies is another strategic aim of the GreenChemForCE project. Our work focutilizes on comparing and updating existing curricula to build them more impactful. A leading example is TU Wien, which, toreceiveher with partner universities (BOKU Vienna and the University of Vienna), offers a dedicated master’s programme in Green Chemisattempt. This programme serves as a model and an inspiration for curriculum development within the academic part of the network.

The legislation pillar established within the consortium has an advisory character and highlights two major aspects that necessary to be addressed. First, the volatility of energy prices, and second, the uncertainty of policies, both of which hinder industrial investment in the development and implementation of sustainable technologies.

A greener, more resilient future for the sector?

Despite the progress achieved, significant work remains to build the chemical indusattempt sustainable and circular. Continued efforts in technology development, policy support, education, and regional collaboration will be essential to transform current industrial processes and ensure a greener, more resilient future for the sector.