The 2025 Net-Zero Industries Award ceremony took place on Saturday, November 15, 2025, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. Hosted at the UK Pavilion, the ceremony celebrated the extraordinary achievements of individuals and projects driving innovation in industrial decarbonisation.
Professor Peter Styring, Professor of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, said: “I am delighted Flue2Chem has received the Net Zero Industries Mission Award for the United Kingdom Outstanding Project for 2025. The award is decided by representatives from the nations that form the lead nations of Net Zero Mission Innovation at COP30 in Brazil. The project was also Global Runners-Up in the same category.
“This is a major award as it is decided at governmental level and demonstrates how progress is being made towards de-fossilising and de-carbonising industry globally. Flue2Chem faced stiff competition in this category, and it is testament to how strategic collaborations can accelerate progress.”
The Flue2Chem Project was headed by Unilever together with the Society of Chemical Industry and involved 15 major industrial partners and two universities, including the University of Sheffield, led by Professor Peter Styring together with Dr James McGregor and researchers Dr Alma Santibanez and Dr Umair Jamal. Flue2Chem took a whole systems approach to the production of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) from carbon dioxide capture at foundation industry emitter sites, conversion to FMCG intermediates and their formulation to products such as detergents and steel coatings. The work also addressed life cycle analysis and technoeconomic evaluation. The added benefit was that as well as producing surfactants, by-products also included gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel fractions (syncrude), adding value to the process.
The project concluded with a Ministerial Round Table co-convened by Lord Callanan and Styring prior to the 2024 General Election and then a final showcase event in the House of Commons in June 2025.
Many of the foundations laid down in Flue2Chem have led to the EPSRC-NERC award of the Great British Chemicals Centre in 2025 to Professor Styring and colleagues from another nine UK universities.