I really don't see why it couldn't be, non runesmith dwarves make use of runes all the time as tools. Often better than runesmiths do because they have more time to devote to relevant skills, for example Otrek in our gear would be much stronger than Snorri is in it. This is the core of why I don't think we should focus on teaching Alchemy to other runesmiths if you do that you either end up with a runesmith with some alchemy knowledge or you trade a runesmith for an alchemist who can make runes, by comparison if you teach it to a non runesmith the Karaz Ankor gets an alchemist at the cost of a (much less valuable) non runesmith dwarf. We don't have runesmiths micromanaging gromril smelting, they make the smelter and then go their way and let the smiths handle it, this is basis any alchemy guild should use. Runesmiths build the tools alchemists use them and ideally they reverse engineer ways to do without runes in case they can't get access to the necessary runes. This way you don't need to go through the glacially slow growth of alchemists within the runesmiths your method proposes instead you get a dwarvenly slow growth of the alchemists guild as an entirely separate institute, one runesmiths can work with if they so desire and it's no different than when a runelord works with say the engineers guild.
Essentially the way I see the alchemists guild working based on my understanding of how warhammer magic works is that you would have the entirely mundane side of the guild, the chemistry side, this would cover investigating various mundane materials their properties how best to use them etc, they would probably work a lot with other mundane guilds to devolp their respective material sciences (e.g. working with smiths to create the best alloys for different situations or to create better refining process for ores) this hopefully results in inventing stuff like gunpowder early. Due to how magic interacts with most stuff in the warhammer world this would likely have a pretty fuzzy boundary between it and the more magical side which would have dwarves investigating methods of using physical materials and objects to interact with magic. Obviously this side covers a lot of stuff, there's obvious stuff like trying to create potions and elixirs by mixing together magical ingredients and submitting them to various process which is the stereotypical idea of alchemy, this would likely use a mix of mundane and runic tools. There would also be things like investigating the process by which magical materials (e.g. hearthstones) are created. Is it a process that can be deliberately replicated or was it a one off magical spasm that left them behind as a result? Can runes replicate the effect that created them and/or can it be done without them? This is the kind of investigation that would likely need a closer co-operation between alchemists and runesmiths but mundane dwarves can do a lot of the legwork and save runesmiths a lot of time as we've seen with spending favour on the rare places materials.
