CHEMUK 2026 conference: Setting the agenda for UK flow, process and regulatory excellence
CHEMUK returns to the NEC Birmingham on 20 and 21May 2026 with its most ambitious conference programme yet – over 50 hours of free-to-attend content spread across five stages, running right through the heart of the event floor. For Flow Magazine readers, the 2026 edition is shaping up as a must-attend focal point for everything related to flow, process optimisation, safety and regulatory change.
At the core of the programme are two daily mini-conferences hosted by IChemE, each a 2-hour deep dive into the skills, technologies and system-level changes needed for a safer, smarter, cleaner industry and for developing the modern chemical engineer. These sessions will be followed by an IChemE keynote, ensuring that big-picture thinking on process safety, digitalisation and net zero sits alongside practical case studies and early‑career perspectives.
Flow and reaction engineering themes are strongly represented. Asynt will return with a new talk, “Exploring batch and flow photochemistry for reaction scalability”, building on its 2025 session by showing how continuous and photochemical methods can unlock safer, more efficient scale-up pathways. Endress+Hauser will present a powerful case study on “Raman spectroscopy to improve process understanding and control of multi-phase slurry polymerisation”, demonstrating how in-line optical analysis can turn a complex, opaque slurry polymerisation into a controllable, optimised, data-driven process. Basetwo AI will show how “hybrid mechanistic–ML digital twins” can improve critical quality attribute control in reactive distillation, cutting cycle times and reducing batch failures through soft‑sensing and real-time prediction.
Alongside these technology-focused sessions sit high-impact environmental and regulatory contributions. PFAS management and destruction will be a major theme, with presentations from Puragen on its “Search, Capture & Destroy” granular activated carbon process, and from Chemviron on full-scale thermal destruction of PFAS-laden activated carbon with >99.99% removal demonstrated. In the regulatory stream, Staphyt Regulatory will explore new REACH polymer registration requirements and grouping strategies, while UL Solutions will examine the growing use of group-based regulations and their implications for supply chains. Enviresearch and Ricardo (now part of WSP) will tackle biocidal registration and post-transition poison centre notifications, respectively, giving attendees concrete guidance on staying compliant in a rapidly shifting landscape.
Flagship panel debates will once again anchor the programme. The UK REACH panel, now an established residency, returns on day one with a refreshed line-up drawn from government, industry, trade bodies, NGOs and legal experts to discuss “what’s in the mix for ’26”. The Chemical Regulations Self Help Group will close the day one regulatory stream with a concentrated “Regulatory affairs round up” Q&A. Day two will see the “Big Educational Debate” back on stage, hosted again by Dr Suze Kundu, asking how the UK can genuinely underpin its future chemistry and chemical industries talent base.
And this is only the early view. Further content is being confirmed almost weekly: from agrochemicals regulation panels and adhesives and sealants futures to outsourcing energy efficiency in production and circular chemicals mini-conferences. For anyone concerned with flow, process performance, compliance, or the future competitiveness of UK chemicals, the CHEMUK 2026 conference will be far more than background noise to the event floor – it will be where the sector’s most urgent technical and strategic conversations happen, live.
More details, including full timings and additional sessions, will be released on the event’s website as we move through spring.
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