Piia Jõul

Although several solutions have been developed for the processing of cereal byproducts, these have generally not been applied in food production. By-products are nutrient dense and food-grade products, hence, composting, burning, or using them as animal feed is not economically viable. Biotechnological processing, including hydrolysis technologies, enable to produce alternatives to bread and dairy products from bran. Rye consumption has been steadily decreasing in Estonia. The goal is to bring this high-bioactive food back into daily diets. We will develop a technology that can be implemented in development of various food products in different companies. We plan to demonstrate that modern hydrolysis technologies can be used to create fiber-rich and tasty products, thereby solving a fundamental dietary problem —the lack of dietary fibre in the diet, which is the root cause of most chronic diseases.

Wood or lignocellulosic biomass more generally, is a readily available renewable resource, offering sustainable solutions for our growing human population. The core wood polymers - cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin - serve as fundamental components, extending beyond paper production to produce valuable wood sugars, textile fibers, thermoplastics, and fine chemicals. In our project, we are developing enzyme technologies utilizing extremophilic microbe-derived enzymes to break down and modify lignin, remove toxic phenolic compounds, convert cellulose into wood sugars, and advance enzyme-catalyzed cellulose technologies. Additionally, the project focuses on advancing technologies for converting kraft, hydrolysis (and organosolv) and synthetic lignins into porous materials, thermoplastics, and cutting-edge catalysts.