SuCCEED (Sustainable Commodity Chemicals through Enzyme Engineering and Design) is a BBSRC funded Prosperity Partnership between The University of Manchester and Shell.

Commodity chemicals are produced and utilised globally, and at large scale. They serve as essential building blocks for a wide range of products including plastics, lubricants, detergents, fuels, coatings and dyes, products we all use in our everyday lives. They are often derived from fossil-based resources and energy-intensive processes, contributing significantly to environmental degradation through climate change, resource depletion and pollution. There is therefore an urgent need to  transition to more sustainable and environmentally friendly methods for their production.

The SuCCEED Prosperity Partnership aims to re-imagine the manufacturing of these bulk chemicals through the use of Industrial Biotechnology. We are an interdisciplinary team consisting of 8 research groups based across the University of Manchester with expertise in Enzyme Discovery, Metabolic Engineering, Synthetic Biology, Directed Evolution, Fermentation, Process Optimisation and Lifecycle Analysis. We will harness recent developments in these fields to develop new sustainable methods for the production of commodity chemicals and fuels. We will design, improve and utilise microbes and enzymes (Nature’s catalysts) to convert renewable feedstocks, such as agricultural waste, into sustainable chemical products, reducing dependence on non-renewable resources, minimising waste, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.