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Smart control of power plants to support the growth of renewable energy

The fluctuating supply of wind and solar energy forces traditional power plants to be more flexible. The two-year SmartFlex project develops smart monitoring and control tools that can be used to control power plants in rapidly changing situations. The aim is to extend the lifespan of the plants as well as to maintain high efficiency and low emissions in a reliable way.Conventional combined heat and power (CHP) production balances the fluctuation that wind and solar power bring to the energy market. CHP plants also provide an opportunity to combust biomass residues as well as waste, thus

Anssi Laukkanen becomes VTT’s first research professor in computational materials science – materials modelling improves the competitive edge of industrial operators and boosts circular economy

Materials are everywhere, and even small materials-related developments almost always have great significance – not to mention completely new materials and solutions. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd invests heavily in pioneering Finnish materials research. Anssi Laukkanen, D.Sc. (Tech.), who was involved in the creation of the materials modelling concept VTT ProperTune, has been appointed as VTT’s first research professor in computational materials and data sciences.Digital, computational materials research provides for more durable and efficient materials solutions for the

New ecosystem launched to boost photo and radiation detector hardware development

VTT, together with Aalto University and industrial partners, has started a joint effort to accelerate the development and commercialization of tailored high-performance detectors and systems for different application areas, ranging from medical imaging to environmental sensing. The new detector ecosystem, RaPtor, is part of the renewal of the Finnish electronics industry initiative.Detection of electromagnetic and particle radiation is essential in numerous applications from industrial instrumentation and analysis services to medical imaging and consumer products. Advancements in these

Improved comfort and safety for future firefighters and rescue workers with smart clothing

Researchers and companies jointly developed a wearable technology solution for firefighters. It allows real-time monitoring of heat stress, thus improving the occupational health and safety in challenging temperatures.In many professions, temperature causes major challenges to thermal comfort and occupational safety. For example, in emergency missions of fire and rescue services as well as in mines and construction sites, the working conditions often cause extreme physical strain. Since physically strenuous tasks in hot conditions wearing appropriate protective clothing and equipment often

The need for demand-side management of electricity increases – piloted marketplace would enhance the use of demand-side resources

VTT and the University of Vaasa are collaborating to develop a new real-time marketplace for demand-side management of electricity. The marketplace would solve some challenges brought about by the energy revolution by enhancing the use of demand-side resources. At the same time, it would enable giving consumers a more active role on the energy market than they currently have.Continuous energy availability is necessary for all Finns and the Finnish industry. However, it is impossible to store energy in a large scale, so, to ensure availability, there must always be a balance between the

Motorcycles to be made smarter and safer with digitalisation

VTT and KTM Nordic Oy (KTM) have started cooperation to equip the KTM motorcycle with similar technical data transmission and environment perception systems as VTT’s automated vehicles.  The vehicle safety systems and sensors are intended to make motorcycles more visible to other vehicles and traffic safer and more efficient than before. VTT has received international recognition for the development of automated vehicles and their sensors and software, especially for difficult conditions. VTT is currently conducting research in more than ten international and domestic traffic automation

Electronics developers start extensive co-operation to advance circular economy

Companies and research institutes involved in the development of electronics and optics will begin co-operation under the leadership of VTT. The objective of the two-year research and development project funded by Business Finland is to create recyclable and compostable electronics and optics that use renewable resources.Smart packages and disposable travel cards are excellent examples of the increasing applications of electronics. Smart packages communicate wirelessly with consumers and the entire supply chain, and disposable travel cards are easy to read remotely by card readers. However,

VTT develops alternative leather from fungi – aims at industrial-scale production

Animal skin is an excellent material, but the tanning process of leather causes significant chromium emissions that are damaging to the environment and human health. Synthetic leathers also burden the environment and fail to match the quality and durability of animal leather. Therefore, new bio-based replacement materials are sought for leather. VTT is using fungal mycelium to produce skinlike material that would be suited for industrial production.For centuries, fungi and polypores have been used for making skinlike fabrics and accessories in Europe. Designers and researchers are now

New VTT innovations boost food production – plant “breathalyzer” wins research pitching at Slush

Climate change, population growth and urbanisation cause challenges to food production. In the future, it must be possible to produce increasing amounts of food with smaller resources. VTT has developed two innovations that respond to these challenges: one – winner of this year’s research pithing competition at Slush – enhances growth conditions particularly in vertical farming, and the other provides better protection from heat than the present solutions.Monitoring of gas molecules to improve crops VTT’s award winning innovation focuses on the optimisation of growth conditions in

VTT solved challenges of emission-free hydrogen technology: Movable fuel cell electrolyser produces hydrogen and electricity from hydrogen in an emission-free manner with excellent efficiency

Hydrogen technology is playing an increasingly important role in mitigating climate change. Hydrogen, which is widely used in industrial processes, is also suitable for fuel and energy storage and can be produced from water without emissions. VTT has combined devices that produce hydrogen from water and electricity from hydrogen into a single movable system that produces hydrogen with an efficiency as high as 80–90%.When hydrogen reacts oxygen in a fuel cell, electricity is generated with only water vapour as emissions. This electrochemical basis for hydrogen technology is old, but its

VTT’s deep-tech incubator teams come up with two solutions to meet the need for new sustainable fish feed

Food shortages are a major global issue. Population growth is increasing the need for food, and growing wealth is driving demand for animal protein foods. VTT’s deep-tech incubator LaunchPad promotes the commercialisation of solutions relating to, for example, animal feed and especially fish farming.VTT LaunchPad includes two ventures that are looking for answers to the problems of fish feed production: Enifer Bio and Volare. Enifer Bio’s solution is based on the use of dilute side streams from the agro- and forest industries, and Volare’s solution focuses on the valorisation of food-

Press release: VTT’s snack machine prepares a healthy Scoothie according to the user’s wishes

VTT developed a snack machine that nimbly prepares a product with high fibre or protein content – a Scoothie – in accordance with the consumer’s wishes and needs. In the future, such machines may become available at workplaces, airports or shops, for example.“The trend towards personalized and healthy food and eating is growing as consumers want and also know how to demand products that meet their own preferences, values and needs. Consumers also wish to make their busy everyday lives easier with services that are easily accessible”, says VTT Research Team Leader Emilia Nordlund. The

Valuable product from steel industry slag – components created as a result of piloting tested in Finland and Spain

VTT and Renotech Oy developed a method for the partial replacement of refractory ceramic raw material with slag from the steel industry.Europe’s steel industry produced around 21.4 million tons of slag in 2012. A quarter of this was not re-used. Slag is traditionally used in road building, for example as insulating material in the subbase of roads. The RESLAG project funded by the EU developed methods of using slag in various energy industry applications. Finnish company Renotech Oy led one of the piloting projects under RESLAG and developed fire-resistant or refractory ceramics

VTT develops smart cities in LuxTurrim5G ecosystem

In smart cities of the future, smart light poles will replace ordinary light poles, laying the foundations for a fast and efficient 5G network. Smart light poles, equipped with sensors, cameras and displays, also help cities improve safety, air quality and effectivity of transportation. LuxTurrim5G project has been piloting smart light poles in Karaportti, Espoo, and the network is now being expanded to the rapidly growing Kera area.The 5G technology significantly accelerates and enhances data transfer and opens up opportunities for digital services focusing on such issues as safety, energy

Solution from VTT to prevent beer bottle explosions

Some contaminant yeasts make beer bottles and cans explode. Apart from being dangerous for consumers these ‘diastatic’ yeasts also cause loss of beer batches due to off-flavours, increased alcohol and over-carbonation in products. VTT scientists developed a genetic test for brewers to detect the strains that cause these problems.   Diastatic yeasts are one of the most important and problematic contaminants in the brewing industry. The number of contaminations has increased during the past few years, particularly in smaller breweries. Diastatic yeasts cause problems in the brewing

Digital society relies on 5G – VTT is developing a more secure 5G network with companies

5G technology plays a key role in the development of the European economy and industry. The global 5G market is estimated to generate EUR 225 billion worldwide in 2025. New business models based on 5G technology rest on high and fast availability of data. The technology is needed, for example, in transport and industry, in the health and well-being sector, in smart and energy-efficient housing and in sharing game and media content. “Dependence on new 5G technologies and related services means that security cannot be compromised. It must be ensured that consumers can rely, for example, on

New sustainable technologies for wood-to-textile value chain enables increased production of man-made cellulose fibres in Europe

Press release 18 June, 2019 GRETE, the Green chemicals and technologies for the wood-to-textile value chain project, has been granted EUR 2.6 million by the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU), which is partnership between the EU and the Bio-based Industries Consortium. The project will improve the existing wood-to-textile value chains by developing breakthrough technologies that can open up the identified bottlenecks and enable increased production of man-made cellulose fibres in Europe. The GRETE project will tackle the bottlenecks of creating wood-to-textile value

VTT created a mini cupcake factory that can prepare personalised cupcakes in less than 2 minutes

Press release 14 June, 2019 Consumers demand more personalised and healthy foods. This trend combined with hectic lifestyle and snacking requires new on-site technologies to satisfy consumers’ needs. VTT created a prototype of a mini cupcake factory, which enables on-site production of personalised, healthy snacks in order to show that instant food production with tailored recipes is possible today. VTT’s cupcake machine produces on-demand single serving fresh, warm cakes starting from scratch in a matter of minutes. The user can choose a sweet or savoury cake and personalise its

VTT to add new methods to the plastics recycling chain

Thermochemical treatment to recycle low-quality plastic wastePress release 11 June, 2019 A portion of collected plastic waste does not qualify for mechanical recycling and ends up incinerated instead. VTT complements the selection of sustainable recycling methods with chemical recycling based on pyrolysis, which will turn nearly all plastics and their mixtures into oil – the raw material of fuels, plastics and other chemicals. Mechanical recycling suits the most common plastic bottles, bags and wraps. They are sorted, washed, melted and moulded into new products. However, 40 to 60

Marko Koistila appointed as Vice President, Sales and Customer Partnerships at VTT: Science and research create future business success stories

Marko Koistila has been appointed as VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd’s Vice President, Sales and Customer Partnerships as of 1 June 2019. Marko Koistila is leaving behind a career in the pharmaceutical industry and a long line of leadership positions at GSK both in Finland and abroad. “Marko’s varied and international background made him an ideal candidate for our vacancy. The pharmaceutical industry is a highly research-intensive sector, and Marko is therefore also familiar with the world of research”, says Mika Toikka, VTT’s Executive Vice President, Commercial

New Horizon 2020 project to build European communities’ resilience and social capital

BuildERS is a newly funded H2020 project aiming to strengthen societal resilience, including the most vulnerable groups, against natural and man-made hazards. Technology, trust networks, institutional and community capabilities are in the focus of the research. “By helping the weak we are all stronger.” May 28, 2019 Call for resilience Globally, the amount and the frequency of geophysical and climate disasters are raising rapidly and posing challenges on communities and individuals. Beyond these, other factors such as population growth, urbanization processes, inadequate land

Finland takes action to enhance protein self-sufficiency

Press release 28 May 2019 Finland is in an excellent position to enhance its protein self-sufficiency while building a sustainable, carbon-neutral food chain. A new report by VTT and VYR (the Finnish Cereal Committee) presents action plan for using grains, grass, fisheries, insects and cellular agriculture more efficiently as sources of protein in the production of both food and feed. Raising the share of domestic production at EU and national level in Finland is important for food security, for example, due to the unstable market conditions attributable to climate change. “The EU

VTT involved in the new Nordic venture capital fund investing in science

Voima Ventures is the first Nordic venture capital fund investing purely in science and deep technology. VTT is one of its cornerstone investors.  The Founder and Managing Partner of Voima Ventures is start-up investor Inka Mero, and VTT is accompanied by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and private individuals as cornerstone investors. The founding team includes Mikko Kumpulainen who has previously worked at VTT’s subsidiary company VTT Ventures, Vaaka Partners and BCG.  ‘The multidisciplinary expertise and innovativeness of VTT’s researchers form an excellent basis for new growth

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