Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Group - WMG
Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Group
Creating a cleaner future
To develop sustainable materials and manufacturing processes aligned with circular-economy practices that enable a cleaner, more resilient global economy. Using an interdisciplinary approach, our group brings together expertise across the full technology supply chain to create innovative, sustainable materials and manufacturing solutions that directly address environmental damage.
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About our research
Our field has rapidly shifted from traditional recycling toward circularity, with industry now demanding solutions that prioritise reduction, reuse, remanufacture, and waste-to-resource innovation. Despite this momentum, a major gap remains between sustainable materials research and real-world industrial deployment — a space our group is uniquely positioned to fill. Bringing together expertise in materials engineering, chemistry, economics, microbiology, environmental science, polymer processing, and Life Cycle Assessment, we offer an interdisciplinary approach. We combine symbiotic and green manufacturing principles with advanced circular design methodologies to create materials and processes that are not only environmentally responsible but also commercially viable. Through strong partnerships across sectors such as automotive, motorsport, construction, medical, luxury goods, waste management, and energy, we develop evidence-driven, scalable solutions that help industries transition to circular systems.
Carbon Calculator
All of our research is underpinned by robust financial modelling and life cycle costing to ensure that our technical solutions are fit for purpose and commercially viable.
Life cycle analysis (LCA)
We have both design and characterisation capabilities across all material systems. Capabilities include extrusion, injection and compression moulding, forming, VARTM and surface treatments. Characterisation capabilities include mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrical.
Multi criteria decision aiding
Implementing sustainable solutions in a dynamic world can often require a deeper understanding of many factors and trade-offs. We have deployed robust methodologies using MCDA to allow for the combination of qualitative and quantitative data to be incorporated into decision-making processes.
Waste management and recycling
Within waste management and recycling, we focus on plastic recycling through our EPSRC P.L.A.S.T.I.C project and hydrogen production through water treatment in collaboration with Severn Trent.
Plastic is vital across industries, yet sustainable disposal remains a challenge. High-quality sorting and recyclate production are crucial for reliable recycling supply chains and achieving recycled-content targets in sectors like automotive and packaging. Building knowledge-led, digitally enabled systems is key. Current work includes integrating in-line rheometry for real-time viscosity monitoring with machine learning, aiming to create intelligent recycling systems that improve recyclate use, support sustainability, and contribute to net zero goals.
Our work on recycled carbon fibre(rCF) over many years has seen some great results. These vary from the development of the rCF market from nothing to thousands of tons a year, and some unique applications that include water treatment. RCF is used as a substrate in a microbial electrolysis cell that allows microbes to clean sewage from water and produce green hydrogen as a by-product. This hydrogen we can then use in projects such as our sustainable race car Waste2Race.
Chemistry
We have extensive experience in the chemical modification of natural and waste materials to enhance their functionality and increase their uptake by making them more suitable for industrial products and processing. We have experience of synthesis and characterisation of materials for interdisciplinary projects including polymers, composites and biological tissue. We have extensive advanced materials characterisation experience including conducting in-situ experiments on Synchrotron beamlines.
Circular economy
We have a strong track record in the processing, design and engineering of circular material systems and manufacturing processes that enable them to be deployed in the real world in a cost-effective manner.
Our group focusses on Use of circularity‑driven design frameworks, ensuring materials and products are engineered for multiple life cycles from the out set and converting waste streams into valuable feedstocks for new products and processes.
Recently collaborating on a UKRI project ‘Waste2Race’,a hydrogen-powered car fuelled by sewage. The car has been adapted with sustainable materials including a wing mirror from beetroot waste, a steering wheel made from 100% bio source materials and a recovered car battery from a crashed vehicle by ENRG Motorsport.
Materials Engineering
We have design, manufacturing, and characterisation capabilities across all material systems. Capabilities include extrusion, injection and compression moulding, forming, resin transfer moulding and surface treatments. Characterisation capabilities include mechanical, thermal, chemical and electrical.
Our extensive characterisation capabilities support our high-quality academic output for conference and journal papers, as well as supporting industrial needs for high-quality data.