InStreams Hub - Inorganic circular economy research community

Achieving sustainability in inorganic materials production requires recycling or re-use of all output streams as well as carbon-free production routes.

In order to achieve a waste-free production in industrial processes, we need to find environmentally and economically sustainable ways to deploy un-utilised waste (such as gas cleaning sludges) and to find high-value utilisation targets for all side streams.

Another key issue for achieving sustainability is the production of metals without fossil-based carbon. Firstly, fossil carbon is partially replaced by bio-carbon from renewable sources, and secondly, carbon-based reduction processes are replaced by hydrogen reduction.

To obtain these goals, it is necessary not only to control new treatment and production processes but also to understand the impact of changes in the downstream processes.

• Pyro- and hydro-metallurgical treatments
• Mechanical processing
• Recycling and re-use
• Sustainability assessments.

Primary contact:

Head of the Process Metallurgy research unit, professor Timo Fabritius.

Other senior researchers who are working in the field:

• Professor Saija Luukkanen
• Professor Ulla Lassi
• Professor Mirja Illikainen
• Docent Ville-Valtteri Visuri.

Enhanced energy storage and production methods play a key role in sustainable development towards low-carbon society.

Batteries and capacitors as energy storage devices are crucial for a wide range of applications, such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and stationary applications for wind and solar energy storage. The development of batteries and capacitors with higher energy densities, longer cycle lifetimes, and acceptable levels of safety at an affordable cost are critically needed.

The transition from carbon towards hydrogen-based technologies in fuels and industrial processes sets new challenges for advanced active materials. Production of hydrogen is a pre-requisite towards sustainable energy production. Inorganic side streams are a source for the development of environmentally friendly materials with low cost, and they offer a way to improve sustainability throughout the value chain in energy production and storage.

• Energy storage
• Batteries and capacitors
• Battery chemicals
• Materials for hydrogen production.

Primary contact:

Head of the Sustainable Chemistry research unit, professor Ulla Lassi.

Other senior researchers who are working in the field:

• Professor Timo Fabritius
• Professor Marko Huttula.

Inorganic material research of circular economy is essential to enable more sustainable technologies.

Circular economy research focuses on CO2-conscious concrete-like materials, such as geopolymers. Our goal is to find out new applications for inorganic side streams from the process and energy industry as well as to combine high-level academic research and commercialisation of the research results.

Understanding the reactivity and processing of materials is equally important as the research on the properties of the end-product. Safety of the materials both from the environmental and end-user viewpoints is fundamental.

Focus areas:

• Geopolymers
• Alternative cementitious binders
• Foams
• Composites
• CO2 utilisation.

Primary contact:

Head of the Fibre and Particle Engineering research unit, professor Mirja Illikainen.

Other senior researchers who are working in the field:

• Professor Timo Fabritius
• Professor Marko Huttula
• Academy research fellow, Associate professor (Tenure track) Minna Patanen
• Associate professor (Tenure track) Päivö Kinnunen.

Novel imaging and characterisation are enabling multidisciplinary research of inorganic materials.

Our goal is to benefit local and international state of the art methodologies on characterisation of physical and chemical properties of inorganic materials and processes aiming at efficient use of resources and minimisation of waste. The exact in-situ characterisation of raw materials and end products, as well as profound fundamental understanding of the behaviour of materials in operating conditions, is at the core of research.

The unique role in synchrotron radiation-based research, local facilities as well as AI methods and inverse problem understanding benefit from advanced imaging and characterisation of inorganic materials and are developed for the purpose.

Focus areas:

• In-situ and operando characterisation
• Novel imaging techniques
• Spectroscopy in process control and material research
• Synchrotron-based methods.

Primary contact:

Head of the Nano and Molecular Systems research unit, professor Marko Huttula.

Other senior researchers who are working in the field:

• Professor Ulla Lassi
• Professor Paavo Perämäki
• Academy Research Fellow, Associate professor (Tenure track) Minna Patanen
• Professor, Academy Researcher Ville-Veikko Telkki.

Transforming useless side streams into sustainable functional materials is essential for the future of circular economy.

Environmental contamination is a major concern of today. Emissions to air, water and soil are changing our way of living. Utilisation of inorganic side streams in clean-tech applications helps us to reduce the amount of waste and the contamination of our environment.

Our research focuses on the development of novel materials for wastewater treatment and for emission control. Ensuring high quality, safety and good performance of these materials is very important. Based on the scientific information from both the raw materials and the products developed, the materials are tailor-made for specific applications. Our multidisciplinary collaboration is an excellent forum for this.

Focus areas:

• Materials for wastewater and emissions treatment
• Catalytic materials and adsorbents
• Waste stabilisation
• Utilisation of pollutants, e.g. VOC, CO2 and other small molecules.

Primary contact:

Senior research fellow at the Environmental and Chemical Engineering unit, Satu Ojala.

Other senior researchers who are working in the field:

• Professor Ulla Lassi
• Professor Marko Huttula
• Professor Mirja Illikainen
• Assistant Professor (Tenure track) Tero Luukkonen.

Wasteful economy is transferring towards circular economy and sustainable value chains.

To decrease the amount of inorganic waste, or to transform waste into value-added products, we need new technologies, processes and value chains, which profoundly shape the future of our economy and society. We focus on developing operative supply chains, new strategic value chains and business ecosystems as well as productisation and commercialisation of novel technological solutions.

Our research integrates knowledge to anticipate challenges in sustainable value chains, linking value chain analysis to engineering and feeding information to policymakers and actors in the public and private sectors. Employing the understanding of the business behaviour provides a strong basis for examining sustainable business model development towards circular economy for inorganic side streams.

Focus areas:

• Business ecosystems
• Sustainable business models
• Product life cycle management
• Operative supply chain and value stream renewal
• Productisation and commercialisation.

Primary contact:

Head of the Industrial Engineering and Management research unit, professor Harri Haapasalo.

Other senior researchers who are working in the field:

• Professor Pauliina Ulkuniemi
• Associate professor (Tenure track) Jukka Majava.

The InStreams Hub community has over 100 researchers working on these themes.

The community is led by Associate Professor Päivö Kinnunen of the Fibre and Particle Engineering Research Unit.

The primary contact for each theme can be found from the theme pages.

In operative coordination we have

• InStreams Coordinator Henna Longi
• Communications Specialist Jasmiini Tornberg

All emails are in the format: firstname.lastname @ oulu.fi