Hallett Group

We are a diverse, interdisciplinary group of chemists and engineers, committed to sustainability and scientific excellence.

About us

At the Hallett Research Group, we develop innovative and sustainable solutions for a better future. Led by Professor Jason Hallett, our research focuses on using ionic liquids to solve environmental and industrial challenges.

Our work explores how ionic liquids interact with complex materials, and we apply this knowledge to produce high-value chemicals and biomaterials, vaccine manufacturing and waste recycling (particularly for metal-contaminated solid materials).

Our projects are supported by both UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and leading industrial partners, ensuring our discoveries move beyond the lab and into sustainable technologies that shape the future of green chemistry, and circular economy practices.

More about Hallett Group

Research Areas

🔬 Integrated Biorefinery Research

Our research is driven by the vision of a sustainable future in which renewable resources, such as lignocellulosic biomass, are transformed into biofuels, chemicals, and biomaterials. 

Key areas of innovation include:

  • Deconstruction of biomass using ionic liquids 

  • Enzymatic biocatalysis in protein-friendly ionic liquids 

  • Bioprocess development and scale-up 

💡 Expanding the Potential of Ionic Liquids

Our research explores the versatility of ionic liquids in a wide range of applications:

  • Vaccine formulation – Room-temperature stable vaccines with improved delivery

  • Metal recovery from waste streams

  • Process, techno-economic and socio-economic modelling of ionic liquid biorefining

  • Catalytic production of platform chemicals from biomass using ionic liquids

  • Interactions of ionic liquids with biopolymers

  • Ionic liquids recovery and reuse

  • Textile and dye recycling using ionic liquids

  • Wastewater treatment using supported ionic liquids

  • Corrosion in ionic liquids

🌱 Other Research Frontiers

  • Biobased surfactant production from biorefinery waste
  • Solvent-based carbon capture and storage perspectives
Spin-out companies
  • Lixea: a circular bioeconomy company which uses low-cost ionic liquids to fractionate waste biomass for biofuel, chemical and material production from cellulose and lignin. Lixea operates a pilot plant in Sweden for the Dendronic process, which is the commercial version of the group's ionoSolv process.

  • Nanomox: which produces advanced materials, especially metal oxides, from metallic waste streams using the ionic-liquid based technology Oxidative Ionothermal Synthesis (OIS).

  • Bioataraxis: which produces bio-derived furan-based surfactants for detergent and personal care applications. The surfactants demonstrate superior performance to petrochemical surfactants but are fully biodegradable, non-toxic and renewable. They have a similar cost point to market detergents.

  • Dye Recycle: which extracts dyes from waste textiles and transfers them to new fabrics, enabling easier textile recycling and creating the first circular dyeing process. DyeRecycle uses alternative solvents to achieve a waterless dyeing solution.

  • Vanadion: which manufactures vanadium redox flow battery electrolytes from waste sources using ionic liquids.

  • CO2Co: which is a recently launched direct air capture company developing extremely large-scale CO2 removal solutions.

  •  Ionic Recovery: which is a circular economy company that focusses on the recycling of critical minerals in energy storage, transport and telecommunications applications.

A very special company was also founded by one of the group's PhD students:

  • Oorja: which is a social enterprise dedicated to changing the lives of rural farmers in India by bring solar electricity for irrigation, commercial and home use to communities without adequate access to power.
Contact

🏫 Location: 228b, Bone Building, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom 

📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hallett-group-9a296a35b/

✉️ Email: j.hallett@imperial.ac.uk