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Turning waste streams into sustainable products — New Tampere University project rethinks chemical value chains

Tampere University is preparing a new project in which industrial partners will transform carbon dioxide and waste side streams into sustainable products. The project is now open to new collaborators.

One of the biggest challenges facing the bioeconomy is changing the current flows of production. The transition towards fossil-free and sustainable production requires a full reorganisation of production methods and material side-streams so that unused waste can be recycled.

This is the ambitious goal of a new co-creation project and an upcoming co-innovation project prepared by Tampere University and supported by IBC Finland.

The Industrial symbiosis on CO2 and waste and side stream conversion to sustainable products (isoSUS) -project will explore the potential to produce sustainable chemicals by combining processes in new ways using different industrial side and waste streams. The project preparation began in May 2023.

The co-creation project aims to identify products of interest and the production processes required for selected side streams. The co-innovation project - currently under preparation - will investigate how to control and monitor the process steps needed for handling side streams and producing selected chemicals, and how to optimise the performance of the whole value chain. Importantly, the project examines new business opportunities within the processing chain.

“By switching to a renewable feedstock, the isoSUS project allows companies to explore many new opportunities in value chains,” says Tenure Track Biotechnology Professor Ville Santala at Tampere University.

The first isoSUS workshop took place on 12 June, bringing together representatives from industry and research organisations. Participants discussed potential feedstocks, products, different processing and production processes, life cycle assessment and business models for the whole value chain. The next isoSUS workshop will take place in August 2023, where the content plan for the project under preparation will be refined and developed together with industry partners.

The strength of the project is its growing partnership network, which is currently open for new collaborators. If your organisation is interested in joining the project, please contact us.

Ville Santala, Tampere University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +358 40 1981 099

Marika Kokko, Tampere University, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +358 50 4478 751

Aila Maijanen, IBC Finland, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., +358 50 3751 182

 

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IBC Finland builds novel biotechnology solutions and products through project cooperation between companies and research institutes. We offer industry the opportunity to achieve sustainable processing and production of biobased products, chemicals, materials and fuels, from renewable raw materials using biotechnology.

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