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For the purpose of this roadmap the UK chemical industry is divided into four sectors; each of which raises different issues of sustainability, and which will exploit technology in different ways.
- Pharmaceuticals
Chemicals and formulated products to prevent or treat disease conditions and to promote health. This is a large part of the UK chemical industry and dominates the total R&D investment. This is a highly innovative sector, with a constant need to find novel active ingredients and new ways to deliver drugs. There is a strong interest in reducing toxicity of actives and increasing their efficiency.
- Consumer products
Products sold directly to consumers, including cosmetics, cleaning products, paints and adhesives, but excluding foods and fuels. These products are sold on performance and brand. These chemical products are usually designed to be released directly into the environment, and so there is considerable interest in reducing their toxicity and overall environmental impact.
- Specialty chemicals
Specialty chemicals are sold on what they do, rather than what they are and what they cost. Performance is the important issue. Specialty chemicals are sold in lower volumes and at higher value than commodity chemicals. Innovation is key and the attraction for this sector is the potential of green chemical technologies to open up new areas of chemistry whilst continuing to drive down toxicity and environmental impact.
- Commodity chemicals
Chemicals produced in high volumes and sold on the basis of specification and price. The area of green chemical technology of most interest to this sector is improving atom efficiency by minimising resource and energy consumption, and waste.
In addition there are many industry sectors downstream of the chemical industry that make use of a wide range of chemicals in their products and services
For each sector there is a description of the key short term and longer term needs for which sustainable chemical technologies may be able to provide answers
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