• Project preparation start: May 2023
• Project coordinators: Prof. Marika Kokko & Prof. Ville Santala, Tampere University

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.

Project description

One of the biggest bioeconomy challenges 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 goal of the co-creation project and an upcoming co-innovation project isoSUS prepared by Tampere University and supported by IBC Finland. Together with industrial and academic partners, 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 further 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. The project examines new business opportunities within the processing chain, in order to transform carbon dioxide and waste side streams into sustainable products.

The isoSUS project kicked off in September 2024. If you are interested in learning more, please contact:

Ville Santala, Tampere University, ville.santala@tuni.fi,
+358 40 1981 099

Marika Kokko, Tampere University, marika.kokko@tuni.fi,
+358 50 4478 751

Aila Maijanen, IBC Finland, aila.maijanen@clicinnovation.fi,
+358 50 3751 182

• Project start: 1.6.2016
• Project end: 31.5.2019
• Project coordinator: Dr. Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, VTT
• Tekes funding: 780 000 EUR
• Total budget: 1,3 MEUR

Fermatra project researched and developed “hardware”—i.e. equipment and modelling—to enable efficient mass transfer of gases to fermentation liquid phase, and “software”—i.e. microbial processes—for utilization and valorization of industrial gases.

Project partners were:

• VTT
• Aalto University
• Lappeenranta University of Technology
• University of Oulu
• Neste Oyj
• Outotec Finland Oy
• Outokumpu Crome Oy
• Neste Jacobs Oy
• Carbon ReUse Finland Oy
• SansOx Oy

Most industrial gases are combusted or even flared today. Steel mills, oil refineries, pulp mills and power plants produce yearly millions of tons of untapped raw material in Finland. The gas streams can be valorized with novel process concepts like gas fermentation. In gas fermentation, microorganisms work as catalysts to produce fuels such as ethanol, chemicals such as lactic acid and single-cell protein as animal feed from the gases. These products may yield high added-value in comparison to the current situation in the industrial gas utilization.

Gas fermentation systems and also aerobic conventional bioprocesses require efficient mass transfer of gaseous substrates, such as oxygen, to the culture medium (liquid phase) and further to microbial catalysts (solid phase). Gas-to-liquid mass transfer has been identified as the rate-limiting step and bottleneck for fermentations because of the low aqueous solubility of oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane. Thus bioreactor design that delivers sufficient gas-to-liquid mass transfer in an energy efficient manner at commercial scale represents a significant engineering challenge yet un-tackled.

• Project start: 1.9.2015
• Project end: 31.8.2018
• Project coordinator: Dr. Raija Lantto, VTT
• Tekes Funding: 570 000 € (2015-2018)

Project description

The project aimed at establishment of new type of biorefineries by showing why and how ensiled grass should be biorefined into a variety of inventive feed products.

The need-based research of the INNOFEED project was executed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT) and Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).

Company participants included:

• Valio
• Roal
• A-Rehu
• Eastman
• BIOvakka
• Pirteä Porsas
• Pohjolan Maito
• Pellon Group

INNOFEED reflected the main aspects of the Finnish Bioeconomy strategy. It created:

• prerequisites for competitive domestic operational environments which are less sensitive to the fluctuations on the global prices of raw materials
• new business to support for growth of bioeconomy as new centralised and/or on-farm biorefineries will be established
• strong competence basis on which bioeconomy-related business can build on by combining Luke’s grass cultivation, ensiling and feed competence with VTT’s biomass processing technology and techno-economic calculations. This collaboration will materialise as a unique consolidated process covering the whole value-chain from selection, cultivation and harvesting of grass, via processing by ensiling and biotech to a set of value feed products.
• opportunities to use more efficiently but at the same time sustainably our most abundant field grown biomass

Presentations and posters

• Optimizing grass silage quality for green biorefineries (PDF, 10.1 MB)
  Presentation at European Grassland Federation 17-21 June 2018 in Cork, Ireland
• Grass silage for biorefinery—Separation efficiency and aerobic stability of silage and solid fraction (PDF, 861 kB)
  Poster at Nordic Feed Science Conference 12-13 June 2018 in Uppsala, Sweden
• Grass for biorefinery—Dairy cow responses to diets based on solid fraction of grass silage (PDF, 7.8 MB)
  Presentation at Nordic Feed Science Conference 12-13 June 2018 in Uppsala, Sweden
• Grass silage for biorefinery—Effect of additives on silage quality and liquid-solid separation of timothy and red clover silages (6.5 MB)
  Presentation at Nordic Feed Science Conference 12-13 June 2018 in Uppsala, Sweden
• Grass silage based juice—palatability test for pigs and cows (PDF, 7.3 MB)
  Innofeed presentation on "Maataloustieteen Päivät" congress in Helsinki on 11 January 2018.
• Nurmibiojalostamo tarjoaa monia mahdollisuuksia ja hyötyjä (PDF, 2.3 MB)
  Innofeed presentation on "Maataloustieteen Päivät" congress in Helsinki on 11 January 2018 (in Finnish).
• Fibrolytic enzyme treatment prior to ensiling increases press-juice yield from grass silage (PDF, 2.1 MB)
  Nordic Feed Science Conference 13-14 June 2017, Uppsala, Sweden.
• Ammonia and dilute acid pretreatment of grass silage, a versatile biorefinery feedstock (PDF, 1.8 MB)
  Poster
• Nurmesta rehua (PDF, 7.0 MB)
  Innofeed project presentation April 2017 (in Finnish)

Final seminar

• Seminaarin ohjelma ja INNOFEED-esittely Raija Lantto (PDF, 1.3 MB)
• INNOFEED_Nurmen tilakohtainen hyödyntäminen Erika Winquist (PDF, 2.6 MB)
• Nurmibiojalostamokonsepti Matti Siika-aho (PDF, 1.4 MB)
• Säilorehu biojalostamon raaka aineena.pdf Marketta Rinne (PDF, 8.0 MB)
• INNOFEED sikakokeet Liisa Keto (PDF, 1.4 MB)
• Loppuseminaari Simo Ellilä (PDF, 2.2 MB)
• INNOFEED seminaari osallistujalista (PDF, 112 kB)

• Project start: 23.8.2013

• Project end: 30.6.2016

• Project coordinators: Valio Ltd and Roal Ltd

• Tekes funding: Not public

This project is performed by a consortium built within the frame of IBC Finland with expertise covering the whole range of activity, each partner providing important complementarity.

The consortium consists of two industry players, Valio Ltd from the food industry, and Roal Ltd from the enzyme industry, four BioIT SMEs (Bioptima Ltd, Euformatics Oy, Genevia Technologies Ltd, Indalgo Ltd) and a research organization (VTT), all contributing to a platform for the development of new BioIT tools for industrial processes.

Project description

The objective of the project is to improve the efficiency, feasibility and safety of bioprocesses and the manufacturing of bioproducts. In addition, the aim is to develop new business opportunities in the BioIT sector. This project is performed by a consortium built within the frame of IBC Finland.

This project will respond to key questions of the bioprocess industry by employing efficient computational tools. Efficiency of a bioprocess is a multifaceted challenge, in particular in the sense of control and reproducibility. Processes have multiple phases and a great number of variables. Usually problems in processes or in end products can be detected only after the completion of the batch or after the process has stalled. In some cases the process needs to be interrupted prematurely. This leads to substantial economic losses.

One of the major goals of the project is to create predictive models and software. The software developed in this project will be used to estimate the quality of the final product already during the production phase, enabling corrections during the process. Thereby, it will be possible to affect positively the final quality of the product without losing product batches or time due to events in the process.

The continuous development of new types of enzymes and production strains is required for competitivity in industrial biotechnology. Therefore, the second goal of the project is to develop safer enzyme production strains and novel enzymes by incorporating high throughput measurement technologies and more efficient BioIT tools into the development process. This will improve the screening of novel enzymes and/or enzymes having synergy with existing molecules as well as improve product quality and safety by engineering secondary metabolism of production strains.

In the future BioIT tools and software platforms developed in this project can be commercialised by the BioIT companies in other similar projects, thus open new business opportunities.

• Project started in August 2014
• Tekes funding: € 3 955 000 (2014 - 2016)

Partners:

• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
• Aalto University
• University of Turku
• Coordinator: Research Professor Merja Penttilä, VTT

Project description

Synthetic biology is the engineering of biology: the synthesis of complex, biologically based (or inspired) systems, which display function that do not exist in nature. This engineering perspective may be applied at all levels of the hierarchy of biological structures from individual molecules to whole cells, tissues and organisms. In essence, synthetic biology will enable the design of biological systems in a rational and systematic way.

The goal of Living Factories is to realise the full potential of Synthetic Biology in Finland. Synthetic Biology is considered one of the key breakthrough technologies that will have a major impact on our future. It is based on the design and engineering of new-to-nature biological systems. It has great potential to generate novel industrial processes and products. In our Living Factories Programme, we will create an academia-industry-education environment that builds on forward-looking know-how and exploits the unique functionalities that biology - combined with engineering sciences - can offer, and which will be highly competitive internationally. This will serve as an inspiration for novel and visionary solutions for a sustainable biobased society.

• Project started in February 2013
• Project ended in March 2014

The project was led by Valio and combined the expertise of five research institutes:

• Aalto University
• MTT
• VTT
• Metla
• University of Oulu

Person in charge of the project was Matti Harju, Valio.

Project description

The objective of the project was to pre-study the technical and economical feasibility of the production of protein feed from grass silage. Grass and especially grass silage (grass feed) composes an exciting alternative to wood-based raw material for biotechnical utilization.

In this pre-study the technical and economical feasibility of the production of domestic protein feed from grass silage was studied. The feasibility of transforming grass silage into sugar and the most optimal fermentation host and process was analysed.

Final Seminar on 12 March, 2014

• PROTEIINIA RUOHOSTA – Teknis-taloudellinen tarkastelu Matti Harju, Valio (PDF, 252 kB)
• Grass silage – source of valuable nutrients Arja Seppälä, MTT (PDF, 2.2 MB)
• Pressurized hot water extraction of silage Sanna Hautala, Metla (PDF, 642 kB)
• Production of sugars from silage Matti Siika-Aho, VTT (PDF, 930 kB)
• Fermentation of the fractions from silage processing Heikki Ojamo, Aalto University (PDF, 701 kB)

• Project started in 2013, and continued under the Living factories project WP1

The responsible director of the project is Research Professor Pertti Koukkari at VTT. The project manager is Dr. Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, VTT.

Project description

The project focuses on an exciting new technology to harness renewable bioresources for energy storage via microbial electrosynthesis (MES). In MES the solar electricity can be effectively stored to fuels and chemicals by the activity of electrically driven bacteria. Organic waste or even carbon dioxide can be used as the raw material of the MES process, giving e.g. methane, butanol or organic acids as products at the electrodes.

Microbial electrosynthesis can be expected to be more efficient than biomass-based strategies because it offers potentially much greater efficiencies in harvesting solar energy and directs energy inputs to the production of desired organic compounds rather than generating biomass.