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Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre at Åbo Akademi University Professor Stefan Willför E-Mail: Pcc@Abo.Fi Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre at Åbo Akademi University Annual Report 2015-2016 Edited by Otto Långvik, Rose-Marie Latonen, Päivi Mäki-Arvela, Tiina Saloranta, Anna Sundberg, Johan Werkelin Åbo Finland 2016 http://www.abo.fi/pcc/ The annual PCC picture in April 2016 Photo: Atte Aho Inquiries: Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre at Åbo Akademi University Professor Stefan Willför E-mail: [email protected] PCC logo: Linus Silvander Painosalama, Turku/Åbo 2016 Table of Contents 1. Introduction to the Activities in 2015-2016 ................................... 5 2. Organization and personnel ........................................................ 10 2.1 Organization of PCC ............................................................................................... 10 2.2 Wood and paper chemistry .................................................................................... 12 2.3 Combustion and materials chemistry ................................................................... 14 2.4 Process analytical chemistry ................................................................................... 16 2.5 Organic chemistry ................................................................................................... 18 2.6 Industrial Chemistry and Reaction Engineering ................................................. 20 3 Research ....................................................................................... 23 3.1 WP1 - Refining and utilization of polysaccharides ............................................ 24 3.2 WP2 - Conversion of sugars to chemicals ........................................................... 42 3.3 WP3 - Refining options of lignin .......................................................................... 54 3.4 WP4 - Trace elements in refining of biomass ..................................................... 58 3.5 Complementary research activities ....................................................................... 62 4 Publications ................................................................................ 100 4.1 Theses ...................................................................................................................... 100 4.2 Publications ............................................................................................................ 103 4.3 Edited conference proceedings and reports ...................................................... 116 4.4 Patents and invention disclosures ....................................................................... 117 4.5 Awards granted ...................................................................................................... 117 5 Other activities 2015 .................................................................... 118 5.1 Organization of conferences, courses and seminars ........................................ 118 5.2 Participation in conferences, major meetings and courses ............................. 120 5.3 Visitors and visits ................................................................................................... 123 5.4 External eveluations, reviews and tasks ............................................................. 126 6 Doctoral thesis in progress at PCC ............................................ 131 1. Introduction to the Activities in 2015-2016 1. Introduction to the Activities in 2015-2016 Background and news The Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre (PCC) began its journey already 1998 as a centre with common objectives and research strategy. PCC had the status of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in research granted by the Academy of Finland 2000-2011, while 2012-2014 the Centre continued its activities with a new research programme and some additional strategical funding from our university. For the period 2015-2018, PCC obtained the status of Centre of Excellence at Åbo Akademi University as one of four groups out of 20 that applied for the status. This also guarantees some CoE funding from the university. We are now on the second year of our new research plan, “Future Refining of Forest Biomass – the Molecular Process Technology Approach”. The core of the plan is built on our strengths in experimental and modelling capabilities to explore chemical details in novel processes and products that use biomass-based raw materials. The somewhat shifted focus towards modification of the biomass components and their use in high- value applications such as structural biocomposites, 3D biomaterials in biomedical applications, immunostimulatory glycoclusters, and various fine and specialty chemicals have worked out well. We have emphasized the incorporation of all researchers into the core activities and our Work Package leaders Chunlin Xu, Pasi Virtanen, Patrik Eklund, and Nikolai DeMartini have coordinated this well. However, the direct CoE funding being only a small share of the total funding we have also very intensive Complementary Research Activities. Our Johan Gadolin Scholarship Programme has also continued to be successful and is well integrated to our research plan. PCC also welcomes some new members of our Forum for Society (FS). FS now also has a chairperson, Dr Lars Gädda, who will work with intensifying our interactions with the FS, and industry and society in general, as well as suggest new ways of cooperation to benefit all parties. Our newly established deeper cooperation with the Turku Centre for Biotechnology (CBT) and Biocity Turku has been very successful. Biocity Turku announced this year (2016) seven new research programs, where PCC and its members are active in three and have cooperation with also some of the others. The main program where PCC is active is the Advanced Bioresources and Smart Bioproducts – Towards Sustainable Bioeconomy (director: Academy Professor Eva-Mari Aro, University of Turku (UTU), vice-director: Professor Stefan Willför). Then our groups are also members or associated members of the Biomaterial and Medical Device Research Programme (directors: Professor Tero Soukka, UTU, and Jessica Rosenholm (ÅA), vice-directors: Professor Johan Bobacka and Pekka Hänninen, UTU) and Diagnostic Technologies and Applications (director: Professor Pekka Vallittu, University of Turku, vice-director: Professor Leena Hupa). Furthermore, our cooperation has also led to several project applications and projects in the areas of biomedical applications of biopolymers and drug development. 5 1. Introduction to the Activities in 2015-2016 As always, PCC and its members have been very active in applying for funding on both national and international level. One of the bigger applications was most certainly the letter of intent we submitted to Academy of Finland for the Centre of Excellence Programme 2018–2025 call. The research leader for this application is Professor Dmitry Murzin. PCC is active in two out of the three research profile areas Åbo Akademi University has in its current strategy, namely “Molecular Process and Material Technology” and ”Drug development and diagnostics”. The university also supports these areas with special funding and in consequence to this we can now welcome Professor Thomas “Rosi” Rosenau from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria, as an Adjunct Professor at PCC. Professor Rosenau’s area of expertise is very broad and includes e.g. oxidation chemistry, cellulose chemistry, lignin chemistry, chemical synthesis and analytics. In line with this strategy of the profile areas, we have also initiated discussions with the Center for Functional Materials (FunMat) to find ways of closer cooperation and a future common research strategy. The Year 2015 in Numbers In 2015, more than 30 senior researchers and more than 45 full-time PhD candidates worked in the 55 major research projects of the Centre. In addition, a number of shorter term visitors, Master’s students and support personnel participated in our activities. The figure below shows the funding of the Centre since the year 2000. The key external funding sources in 2015 were Åbo Akademi University, the Academy of Finland, and Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation together with Industrial Companies. Especially the decrease in funding from Tekes, but also from Academy of Finland, has raised the demand level of the Centre to maintain its high level productivity of research. This situation is a consequence of the overall funding situation for research in Finland, and PCC is convinced our high-level research and excellent output will change this negative trend. Funding (M€) 8 7 Others 6 Graduate Schools 5 Nordic Scholarships EU 4 ÅA 3 Companies Academy of Finland 2 Tekes 1 0 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 The funding of the Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre 2000-2015 6 1. Introduction to the Activities in 2015-2016 From the Academic point of view the year 2015 was very productive. The table below gives some key numbers of our academic activities in 2015. Once again, the Centre kept a very high production rate by publishing 164 papers in scientific publication series with the full referee system. It is also gratifying to note that the numbers of masters’ theses show a positive trend, while the number of doctoral theses remains high. Theses and peer reviewed journal articles by the Johan Gadolin Process Chemistry Centre. 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Doctoral 5 7 8 2 11 8 8 8 9 7 6 10 10 15 16 12 Theses Masters’ 21
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