Tutkimuksen ja opetuksen kuvaus

Research in my group, and teaching at the University of Helsinki, are related to aquatic ecotoxicology, environmental biochemistry, chemistry and technology in the urbanized world, including the remediation of persistent compounds in the environment; and various aspects of material recycling (circular economy) to discover new valuable processing methods and products.

The aim of the remediation research is to elucidate the relationships between microbial ecology, microbial physiology, and the physicochemical properties of the environment, and to use the obtained data in enhancing natural pesticide dissipation. The research focuses on pesticides in groundwater in Finland, including triazines atratzine, simazine, terbutryn, terbutylazine, hexazinone, and their degradation products, as well as dichlobenil and its degradation product 2,6-dichlorobezamide (BAM). The most promising approaches to enhance pesticide dissipation by organic matter and its fractions are currently being expanded to improve the dissipation of chlorinated hydrocarbons and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Further, research of pesticide dissipation has been extended to modelling dissipation in the Laune aquifer (Lahti, Finland) to model the duration of contamination under different circumstances, and to assess the impact of groundwater flow on dissipation. Acknowledged funding sources are Maj and Tor Nessling foundation, Kolli foundation, Päijät-Häme Cultural Foundation, and Maa- ja Vesitekniikan tuki Ry.

The research in circular economy focuses on novel circular economy products, process development, and safety issues. Molecular methods (real-time PCR, shotgun/metagenomics, enzymology, lipids) combined with traditional approaches (organic matter, elements, physicochemical conditions), and recyclable materials are used as tools to discover novel approaches in material recycling issues. The current research in this field is related to molecular detection of hospital bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in waste treatment, and bioactive molecules isolated from waste to disrupt biofilms formed by hospital bacteria. The focus is on the isolation and characterization of peptidoglycan hydrolases for the disruption of S. aureus cell wall and biofilms. The funding sources, the Research Council of Finland projects Twin-A and Medi-AB, and Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation ABC-Health project are gratefully acknowledged.

In the European Regional Development Fund project Biosykli 8/2019 – 8/2022, the development of a process for converting organic material from waste into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) was begun. PHAs can be used as a raw material for biodegradable/compostable plastic. The PHA production development was further continued in the Ministry of Environment funded project Puhdistamolietteen arvokomponentit (Pulina), EU Horizon project CircSyst and in the project Plant biomass carbon into renewable materials (Kasvibiomassan hiili uusiutuviksi materiaaleiksi, Huuma). The need for this research has risen from the fact that forest industry wastewater, agricultural waste, and other possible organic waste fractions contain a remarkable amount of sugar and sugar-polymer containing carbon rich nutrients such as lignocellulose, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin and their degradation products. A need has been identified for their utilization, for which one excellent possibility is the production of biodegradable/compostable plastic raw materials, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in bioreactors. On the other hand, biorefineries in the forest industry currently produce cellulose and lignin, the degree of refinement of which needs to be increased to produce added value by manufacturing bio-based plastic products and materials with a high degree of processing. The aim of this project is to pilot and demonstrate the PHA production from agricultural and forestry sector wastes, as well as other organic waste materials, such as separately collected bio-waste. The goal is also to develop, as pioneers, the production of biodegradable / compostable plastic products with a high degree of processing from cellulose, lignin and PHAs, so that the technical properties of the products correspond to plastic products derived from fossil coal. In the manufacturing of products, cellulose, lignin and PHA raw materials can be used, and digitization can be developed, e.g. in the form of 3D printing.