This list of the Wolfson Centre’s clients reads like of directory of multinational corporations.

Nestle, Unilever, BASF, Pfizer, RWE, E.ON, Vattenfall and GlaxoSmithKline, the latter its single biggest customer, have all knocked on the door of the institute at the University of Greenwich in Medway.

Yet few outside the manufacturing, energy and pharmaceutical industries have heard of the team of scientists changing the way companies are moving and using their products around the globe.

The Wolfson Centre is one of only three groups of experts in the world in the field of ‘bulk solids handling’, with the other two based in Australia.

Their research essentially helps companies work out more efficient ways of moving and mixing powders, potentially saving millions of pounds in wasted materials stuck to the side of containers and machinery.

“A lot of our work really makes a big impact in industry,” said Professor Mike Bradley, the leader of the centre. “A lot of products we use at home have powder in them and the companies that make them worldwide use our powder flowability tests.”

“We are very proud of what we have achieved. The pharmaceutical industry is worth £6.5 billion and nearly all its products are powders. The food industry is even bigger – worth £90 billion – much of which uses powder.

“All those companies need to know if their powder blends properly and does it demix?

“Even though we have done a lot of research there is still a significant amount we don’t understand about powders, which means the only way we can learn is by getting in a pallet of stuff and testing it out.”

The centre – run by five experts, a technician, admin staff and seven PhD students – makes £700,000 a year as a not-for-profit commercial arm of the university, with all its money reinvested into research.

Its huge range of equipment allows it to mock up a client’s whole handling process or logistics chain, at near- or full-scale, in its 4,843sq ft plant.

There are no undergraduates at the centre, although it is the inspiration for a lot of projects for final-year students. Professor Bradley does do some teaching on engineering degree courses.

Instead, staff at the centre attract revenues by carrying out research for huge companies and also by training about 300 engineers each year from around the world, on courses run at the Chatham Maritime campus or on site.

More industries are using their knowledge. Aerospace companies are beginning to make bespoke parts using metal powders in 3D printing as a cheaper way of manufacturing.

“The amount of stuff that is shipped and processed makes bulk solids handling the biggest endeavour on the planet,” said Professor Bradley, without a hint of irony.

“The problem is it’s not very sexy. It is a bit far removed from what people see in their everyday lives, but it is the single biggest area of human endeavour.”

The Wolfson Centre, originally founded in Woolwich, held an open day this month to mark 10 years since it moved to the Medway campus as part of the University of Greenwich.

Professor Bradley said schools should be teaching more about how powders work – with too much of the focus of chemistry on liquids and gases.

He said: “It’s utter stupidity that it is not in the educational universe.

“Any manufacturing industry has to process powders, but it is not on the school curriculum. I don’t know why, given the number of entrepreneurs who struggle with it.”