Sustainable chemistry and engineering

This Centre of Excellence (CoE) focuses on fostering innovation in resource efficiency, promoting circular economy practices, utilizing local resources, ensuring safe material circulation, and educating researchers to reduce environmental impacts. It centers around four key areas: Strategic Mineral Resources (SMR), Carbon-Based Resources (CBR), Circular Technologies Upscaling (CTU), and Circular Business Eco-System and Modeling (CBEM). The SMR group maps critical materials in waste streams, including renewables, for extraction and reuse while minimizing hazardous waste. The CBR group develops ecofriendly pathways for essential chemicals and plastics, also assessing their environmental impact. The CTU group pioneers waste reduction and recycling methods for aqueous, and solid waste, incl. water purification. The CBEM group analyzes sustainable business ecosystems and value chains. This CoE's interdisciplinary approach will benefit both Estonia and Europe by advancing circular economy.

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.

"The objective of the project is to answer the needs of the bioeconomy sector in well-trained graduates, able to develop innovative and sustainable bio-based products and bioprocesses, and ensure their integration into alternative value chains and different bioeconomy sectors. Bioceb consists of a dedicated 2years (4-semester) MSc joint programme, with a core in-depth training in biotechnology encompassing biological resource diversity and optimal use, bioprocess design and upscaling, and biobased products engineering for targeted markets, with complementary focus on soft skills including project management. In order to promote the development of sustainable and circular bioeconomy systems, the programme goes beyond the biomass processing technical issues, by providing knowledge of green chemistry principles, tools for socio-economic and environmental assessment, experience of facing real-life bioeconomy challenges through projects and examples of flexible biorefinery systems adapted to local contexts. Five academic institutions, the Partners, collaborate intensively to offer joint study modules in addition to their existing curricula. Moreover, a group of strategic associated partners is settled with members from Eu- and Non-EU Universities, research Institutions and socio-economic partners, to contribute to the curricula in internship and masterthesis writing and achievement of learning outcomes. "