vTI-Institute for Wood Technology and Wood Biology - University of Hamburg, Germany
Description of vTI:
On the basis of an official agreement between the Federal Government and the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg the BFH has extensive educational and teaching responsibilities. In close personal union with the University of Hamburg (Wood Science), lectures are offered within the master course of wood sciences. BFHs Institute for Wood Chemistry and Chemical Technology of Wood is one of totally 8 institutes with approx. 50 people incl. 8 PhD students.
Research activities of the institute aim at the improvement of conventional processes and the development of innovative technologies for utilization of wood and other lignocellulosic materials with the objectives to increase the efficiency of their conversion to chemical feedstocks and energy. Moreover, the formation of pollutants and waste materials would be reduced. For process optimisation, new analysis techniques are developed using chemical and biochemical procedures and modern spectroscopic and chromatographic methods
Description of the polysaccharide research activities:
Main research topics in the polysaccharide section are:
- Characterization of polysaccharides in wood fibers and pulps
- Investigations on cellulose and hemicelluloses (xylan and glucomannan incl. their derivatives)
- Production and refining of dissolving pulps
- Enzymology of wood polysaccharides degradation
- Enzyme-aided bleaching of primary pulps and enzyme-aided recycling of waste paper
- Development of chemical and biochemical technologies for degradative conversion of wood polysaccharides into chemical feedstocks
Main pieces of equipments:
Digesters and bleaching equipment incl. organosolv and steaming-pretreatment equipment in explosion-proof pilot hall. Several dedicated HPLC-systems for MW and compositional polysaccharide analysis. NMR, FTIR, DSC, GC/MS.
Contact: Juergen Puls Email: juergen.puls@vti.bund.de
Phone: +49 40 73962 514
Fax: +49 40 73962 599