Quite the day for SciTech-Service Oy Ltd. at Puunjalostusinsinöörit ry – Finnish Forest Products Engineers’ Association autumn meeting. Both our founder, Panu Tikka, and Director, Heikki Hassi, were awarded the Association’s Plaquette of Merit! We could not be more proud. Congratulations! Read more: Syyskokouksessa 2024 stipendein ja tunnustuspalkinnoin palkitut | Puunjalostusinsinöörit
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Conceptual Engineering, biomass-based industries and the Green Shift.
Conceptual process engineering builds a bridge from science and researchers to plant engineers, investment project teams and production personnel.
Comments on conceptual engineering – Introduction
by Heikki Hassi & Panu Tikka Since the beginning in 1983, key service offerings of SciTech-Service Oy Ltd have covered the range from scientific research and development to plant engineering, focusing on biomass-based technologies and processes. In other words, our aim is to bridge the gap between R&D and industrial process technology – two fields, which are mastered by quite …
SciTech-Service Oy presents new team expert
We are pleased to inform that Martti Pekkanen joined SciTech-Service Oy on December 2021. Martti Pekkanen, Ph.D. in chemical engineering, has long experience in process modeling and process conceptual design both in academia and in engineering practice, e.g. in Rintekno Oy, Neste Jacobs Oy, and Kemira Oyj. At SciTech-Service Oy Martti will provide his consulting services as leading expert in the field. www.scitech.fi SciTech-Service offers outsourced technology development for biomass processing in the areas …
Pulp & Paper Industry in Russia
Sulfite pulping in Russia: In anticipation of the conference on Russian Pulp and Paper Industry in Vienna in December, we had the opportunity to chair a virtual round table discussion on sulfite pulping in Russia. This is a very interesting subject as sulfite pulping has largely disappeared from Scandinavia. It turns out that in Russia the sulfite industry is doing …
Transport phenomena in kraft (sulphate) cooking process
Wood substance is a very complicated porous structure consisting of lignin bound wood fibers. We were initializing and leading a 15 years period of research on these issues and their interdependence s with pulp industry, machinery manufacturers and Helsinki University of Technology.
ForestBioFacts: Introduction to forest-based bioeconomy Webinar
From: Forest BioFacts, the digital learning environment and source of in depth information for professionals in pulp and paper and other biomass conversion industries, which is published by the Finnish Forest Products Engineers Association ( www.forestbiofacts.com ). Heikki Hassi participated on the ForestBioFacts: Introduction to forest-based bioeconomy Webinar – presented by Finnish Forest Products Engineers’ Association (PI) and took place on September …
Chemical and Physical performance of Kraft Pulp Cooking
Kraft pulp mill process has become the only dominating cooking process for making chemical pulp. In the 1980’s started an active period where a lot of old conventional cooking capacity were replaced by new mills.
Opportunities and challenges
From: Forest BioFacts, the digital learning environment and source of in depth information for professionals in pulp and paper and other biomass conversion industries, which is published by the Finnish Forest Products Engineers Association ( www.forestbiofacts.com ). The concept of circular bioeconomy is causing a paradigm shift in global economics. This shift provides the forestry sector with a large portfolio of long-lasting …
Carbon cycle and circular bioeconomy
The main source for new raw materials for circular bioeconomy is the productive biological carbon cycle formed by the biosphere and the atmosphere (Figure 1)
SciTech-Service Oy keeps growing!
We are pleased to announce that SciTech-Service’s biorefinery team has been strengthened by the addition of Topias Anttila. Mr. Topias Anttila, M.Sc., joins as Project Engineer in the Biorefinery team. He recently finished his master thesis in Aalto University, School of chemical engineering. Topias studied Chemical and process engineering with his major in Plant Design and Master’s thesis focused on …
The forest sector and the idea of circular bioeconomy
The idea of bioeconomy is that various human needs and desires are fulfilled by sustainable utilisation of renewable natural resources like forests, increasingly also in substitution for the exploitation of non-renewable fossil resources, such as oil, natural gas and coal.
Soap and turpentine in softwood kraft mills
Panu Tikka wrote a short commentary on one of his old publications: PaT 180721 Tikka, et al.Solving soap and turpentine related process problems in softwood kraft mills.P&P Can, 103(2002)6:T 149, p 30 – 35 In the modern more and more sustainable biobased economy the old obnoxious word “pulp mill” is being replaced by a better expression “ bioproduct plant “ …
Introduction to forest-based bioeconomy
From: Forest BioFacts, the digital learning environment and source of in depth information for professionals in pulp and paper and other biomass conversion industries, which is published by the Finnish Forest Products Engineers Association ( www.forestbiofacts.com ). Introduction to forest-based bioeconomy Wood is a renewable natural material with various uses, and it has always satisfied people’s diverse and ever changing needs. Early hunter-gatherers made …
Return for the future – the rediscovery of rags
The textile industry, most visibly the leading fashion brands and entrepreneurs, are busy with efforts to translate the imperative of textile recycling into profitable business.
Re-visiting another 90’s breakthrough invention
Panu Tikka re-visits another SciTech-Service 90’s patent: “Process for the production of a hemicellulose hydrolysate and special high alpha cellulose pulp”
SciTech at the 15th Cellulose Fiber (Viscose) industry forum
Xiang You and Heikki Hassi ‘s recently participated in the 15th Cellulose Fiber (Viscose) industry forum and their presentation is now fully available. The meeting took place from 25th to 27th May in Hangzhou, China. SciTech ‘s presentation was streamed for all conference participants on the 27th May 2021 at 11:10-11:35 a.m. Chinese time (6:10-6:35 a.m. Helsinki time). The event …
Both DWP and VSF need to perform well in a spinning process
Like a VSF mill, also a DWP mill manufactures cellulosic fibres for their customers’ delicate spinning process.
Re-visiting the patent Process for preparing kraft pulp
Panu Tikka re-visited his patent issued back in 2002 entitled “Process for preparing kraft pulp”. Panu shortly describes his invention and how it affected current pulp mills processes.
Dissolving Pulps in an AC press push the limits of Darcy’s law – what does it mean?
It’s not surprising, then, that for assessing the processability of a certain pulp or a pulp blend in AC pressing, and for comparing various pulps, a “flight simulator”, i.e., a small-scale AC press is necessary.
Scitech at the 2nd International Conference on Cellulose Fibres
Heikki Hassi had the pleasure to present at the 2nd International Conference on Cellulose Fibres. The online event took place on the 2nd to 3rd February. You can watch below Heikki Hassi ‘s presentation regarding the topic “The challenging conversion of natural elementary fibrils into Man-Made Cellulosic Fibres” : You can also download the presentation PDF below:
Changes in SciTech-Service Oy Cellulosics expert team
We are pleased to announce that SciTech-Service’s Cellulosic expert team is strengthened by two new members.
PoDoCo awarded a grant to Xiang You & Scitech joint project
We are pleased to inform that on the 2nd December 2019, Xiang You and SciTech-Service Oy were awarded a PoDoCo grant. The Post Docs in Companies (PoDoCo) is a joint initiative of Finnish universities, industry and foundations. This matchmaking program has been supporting long term competitiveness and strategic renewal of companies and employment of young doctors in the private sector. …
Bringing innovation from an idea to business takes skilled management and complementarity
Curious R&D teams often speak a bit different language than their colleagues in production and sales. These two groups of professionals are also motivated by different factors – and for a good reason. While the task of production and sales is to utilize well-known opportunities and solve known problems, R&D people are professionals in identifying unknown opportunities and defining poorly …
Whether it’s innovation or an investment project, uncertainty and exposure don’t mix well.
As experienced project managers know so well, the key to bringing an industrial investment project successfully to its completion is that the level of uncertainty is brought to a low level before major capital expenditure. The more capital is invested in a project, the larger is the exposure to potential losses, e.g., in the case of delays or failures. This …
How and why did non-printed digital media take over?
That the kingdom of media and communication is ruled by the digital is no news. Some 20 years ago it wasn’t news, yet, but a future vision. How and why did this revolution happen? To analyze this, it’s more useful to divide media into printed and non-printed categories, rather than into printed and digital. This is because the value chains …
Shall the gigantic subsidies to fossil fuels cease?
The “Polluter pays” principle is well and widely accepted among policy makers and industries. Applying this principle is the basis on which, e.g., modern waste management and recycling systems are successfully built – and the construction continues. The consumer is increasingly often put in the driver’s seat, when new waste minimization and recycling initiatives are introduced. Maybe the most striking …
Welcome to the bioeconomy in 2016 – we´ve saved you a seat!
SciTech-Service has been a leading developer of new solutions for the biomass processing industry for more than 30 years. Admittedly, the first 20+ years we called it the pulp and paper industry, but the aim has always been the same, to produce added value from biomass for our clients. Back around 10 years ago when I was starting my journey …
Man-Made Cellulosic Conversion Fibre
The Finnish term for Man Made Cellulosic Fibre is ”Selluloosamuuntokuitu”, which better translates into ”Converted Cellulosic Fibre” or “Cellulosic Conversion Fibre”. Either way, it quite nicely describes the essence of viscose fibre and other regenerated cellulose fibres: In an industrial process, the natural cellulose polymer is converted from the form of fibre pulp into the form of textile filament and …
Congratulations! VTT demonstrates cellulosic innovativeness.
SciTech-Service warmly congratulates VTT for the progress on their cellulose dissolving and spinning technique, which now is entering the demonstration stage. (See: http://www.vttresearch.com/media/news/unique-production-experiment-in-progress-turning-waste-cotton-into-new-fibre-for-the-fashion-industry ) We are glad to provide our demonstration scale spinning line and our expert team to VTT’s service for this purpose. The operational landscape of the textile industry is changing as new regulations for handling textile waste …
Experienced pilot can navigate your biomass process to industrial harbor
Having more than 10 000 biomass fractionation trials under its belt, SciTech’s bench scale biomass conversion pilot plant is probably the most experienced player in this field, globally. At the laboratory, various wood species and different annual plants have been converted into cellulose pulps and lignin fractions. Isolating hemicelluloses is also a growing trend. Today, no serious thinker can oppose …