911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ

ChemEng Enterprise has supported the launch of five research-led companies in the last 12 months, underscoring the Department's enterprise culture.

This is the highest number of high-tech spinouts in one year (911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ's runs from 1st August to 31st July) since ChemEng Enterprise was launched in 2019.

Reflecting the broad scope of research in the department, the new ventures tackle global challenges in sustainable materials, greener and energy efficient manufacturing, nature-based remediation, the circular economy and health innovation. The five deep-tech spinouts launched from August 2024 to July 2025 period are:


Spun out in August 2024, 2D Nano scales the sustainable production of precisely tailored 2D materials such as graphene and boron nitride, achieving step-change performance and emissions cuts in sectors including concrete, coatings and energy storage.
Find out more.

RemePhy
December 2024 brought RemePhy, a spinout combining Chemical Engineering and Life Sciences expertise to deploy plant-derived molecules that stabilise contaminated environments offering an affordable, low-carbon route to land remediation.


Also launched in December 2024, Vanadion uses a proprietary, one-pot extraction and purification process to extract vanadium at exceptionally high purity from a variety of industrial wastes at low cost, while producing no tailings and with virtually zero carbon footprint. Targeted applications include vanadium for redox flow batteries, speciality steel alloys for the aerospace industry and the catalyst industry. 

Launched in July 2025, Brilliant Dyes produces natural dyes from algae through an innovative low-energy extraction process. By capturing CO₂ as algae grow and eliminating the need for sugar or fossil feedstocks, Brilliant Dyes's approach cuts the carbon footprint of the synthetic dye sector by around 50%, with the added benefit that the resulting dyes are non-toxic and biodegradable. This helps to clean up one of the dirtiest parts of fashion.


Also launched in July 2025, Orthogonal Peptides leverages proprietary technology developed at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ to synthesise and scale complex peptide structures including cyclic peptides that are critical to the next generation of therapeutics. The platform will focus on areas of high unmet medical need such as oncology, metabolic diseases including diabetes and obesity, and antimicrobial resistance.
Find out more.

Fostering research commercialisation

Pivotal to this performance is the Department's decentralised ChemEng Enterprise programme, run by a small, dedicated team comprising an Enterprise Director (Professor Sandro Machietto) and an Enterprise Programme Manager (Geetanjali Bathina), supported by an inclusive group of researchers (academics, post docs and PhDs).

Working in collaboration with and partnerships, ChemEng Enterprise addresses a key gap in the spinout supply chain. It provides local technology scouting and assessment of commercialisation potential at the time when research is near completion, in addition to mentoring, some pre-seed financial support and early investor engagement for those teams who wish to have a go.

Hands-on, practical, how-to workshops bring together would-be entrepreneurs with supporting professional services and researchers who took the plunge earlier and now run their own spinout company.

An annual Enterprise Day, in its third year in 2025 with over 100 participants, showcases the progress of departmental ventures recently launched and those in the pipeline ahead of incorporation. This is not a classic pitching session or demo day, more like a network building opportunity in a friendly, less pressured environment, that is highly valued by researchers and investors alike and is extremely effective in creating productive relationships.

We started this in-house programme in 2019 based on frustration: that so little of the excellent and eminently applicable research in the department found its way out into commercial ventures. The goal we set ourselves then was to achieve one well-structured spinout a year. That we are achieving so much more than that in just a few years is a testament to the reach seam of innovation in the research. Professor Sandro Macchietto Director of Enterprise, Department of Chemical Engineering

Professor Sandro Macchietto, Director of ChemEng Enterprise, said: "We started this in-house programme in 2019 based on frustration: that so little of the excellent and eminently applicable research in the department found its way out into commercial ventures. The goal we set ourselves then was to achieve one well-structured spinout a year. That we are achieving so much more than that in just a few years is a testament to the reach seam of innovation in the research, the entrepreneurial hunger of our researchers, the pent-up opportunities we are helping release, and the overall favourable enterprise support environment at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ. There is no magic, just simple execution of basics, helping colleagues understand and navigate through process and systems, creating role models and embedding a culture of enterprise. The five exciting spinouts launched in the last year all have the potential to make it big. And we have a dozen more in the pipeline. Watch this space.

The role of this vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Department in championing enterprise as a core mission alongside research and teaching, and was recognised by the award to Professor Sandro Macchietto as the inaugural Enterprise Community Champion of the Year Award, and the more recent success for ChemEng Enterprise, identified as finalists at the IChemE Global Awards Business Start-Up category.

Find out more about ChemEng Enterprise.