The Chair in Sustainable Catalysis is dedicated to turning waste into value. By using catalytic chemistry to convert problem streams such as plastic waste and carbon dioxide into useful products, while offsetting fossil fuel consumption. Based within the Catalysis Institute in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Chair’s work addresses two of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time: plastic pollution that has reached the most remote corners of the globe, and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide. Through novel catalyst systems and reactor concepts, the research aims to generate clean energy carriers, lock fossil carbon away from circulation and contribute to the growth of a South African and global de-fossilised economy.

A flagship project focuses on the catalytic decomposition of common plastic waste, breaking it down into its elemental parts to recover energy as hydrogen and lock carbon away in the form of high-value carbon nanotubes. A second major stream centres on the co-activation of carbon dioxide with green hydrogen, an energy-intensive process for which the Chair’s team has developed bespoke catalyst systems: one for the reverse water gas shift reaction (now the subject of a patent application) and another, already patented, for the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, recently published in collaboration with research groups in the United Kingdom and Poland. These developments feed directly into the commercialisation efforts of the UCT spin-off company C STAR supporting the vision to build and roll out decentralised plants for onsite and on-demand production of sustainable fuels. Aligned with South Africa’s national green hydrogen roadmap, this work positions the university to help build an entirely new industry while delivering economic, societal and environmental benefits.