Professor Kylie Vincent, Fellow and Tutor in Chemistry at Jesus College and Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Dr Holly Reeve (a former Jesus DPhil student), has spun out a company that uses a new sustainable and environmentally-friendly chemistry technology to produce products for the pharmaceutical industry, cosmetics and food.

The company – HydRegen Ltd – has created a novel technology that offers cleaner, safer, faster chemical production. It allows producers of chemicals to get rid of toxic heavy metals, currently used as catalysts in the production of a range of products, which can be extremely environmentally damaging. Instead of heavy metal catalysts, the technology uses hydrogen as an energy source to regenerate ‘co-factors’ – the biological molecules needed to drive the action of enzymes.  Replacing these catalysts with enzymes, powered by hydrogen, will also lower the amount of energy used in traditional methods of manufacture and minimise waste production. An added benefit is that the whole system is reusable as well.

Professor Vincent says, “We are focusing on tackling challenges in the fine chemicals sectors for synthesis of pharmaceuticals, flavour and fragrance molecules, where our technologies lower energy demands, increase product purity and enable continuous flow processes.”

This low carbon, environmentally- focused technology started as a Masters project for Dr Reeve back in 2009, and continued through her PhD at Jesus, under the supervision of Professor Vincent. A five-year grant from innovate UK and ESPRC through the Industrial Biotechnology Catalyst fund enabled the academic team involved to develop the technology further. HydRegen was incorporated in 2020 before being formally spun out this month with support from Oxford University Innovation.

Professor Vincent will take on the role of Non-Executive Director for the new company, while Dr Reeve becomes CEO. Dr Sarah Cleary, who was also part of the research team and co-founded HydRegen, will lead the industrial R&D strategy as Chief Scientific Officer. The company is now operating with lab space at Begbroke Science Park.

Sustainability has played a huge role in the direction HydRegen has taken. Holly says, “Potential customers really liked the sustainability angle – many companies are driven by the need to reduce energy and environmental impacts, but they don’t have the tools”.

Kylie explains that the company’s next priority is to create and test prototypes: “We now need to develop prototypes that potential customers can test and give us feedback on; exploring ease of use, sustainability metrics and comparison to other products currently available. We’re looking forward to working with end users to quantify the benefits of this new technology, before moving to the ‘scale-up’ stage”.

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt FRS, Principal of Jesus College, says “Chemistry has a long and distinguished history at Jesus College and I am delighted to see this latest example of entrepreneurship from Kylie and Holly. HydRegen blends great science with innovative engineering to build the sustainable industries of the future.”

HydRegen has produced an animation demonstrating the hydrogen-powering of the enzyme/co-factor system. You can watch it here  and also follow the company’s progress on Twitter @HydRegen_Oxford.

With thanks to Advanced Oxford for their original article.