Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

Recommendations
This is an excellent unit that should maintain its strategy and high standard of 
research. The panel encourages the unit to more strongly recruit senior staff members 
from outside ÅA and also from outside Finland.
4.37 Åbo Akademi University, Industrial Chemistry and Reaction Engineering
Overview
The Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry and Reaction engineering in the Department 
of Chemical Engineering is one of the four units that constitute the Process Chemistry 
Centre of ÅA, a Centre of Excellence of the Academy of Finland in 2000–2005 and 
2006–2011 (in the second period within the framework of “Sustainable Chemistry in 
Production of Pulp and Paper, Fuels and Energy, and Functional Materials”).
In the evaluation period, the unit had an average staff of two professors, five 
senior researchers and about eight postdoctoral researchers. The unit also had an 
impressive 25 PhD students. The unit is supported by a full-time administrative staff 
member, but no technicians.
Of the annual budget, little more than 20 per cent comes from core funding. The 
majority of the external funding comes from industry, accounting for roughly 40 per 

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cent of the total budget. Considering the large amount of industrial funding, the 
funding from Tekes is at a fairly low level, accounting for some 10 per cent. The 
remaining external funding comes from the Academy of Finland and the graduate 
school.
Research
Industrial Chemistry and Reaction Engineering is one of the largest groups in the 
PCC. One of the main topics is applied heterogeneous catalysis, but also chemical 
kinetics and chemical reactor modelling. The focus is increasingly on green chemistry 
and green process technology. This implies different means of intensification: micro- 
and millireactors, intensification through the use of ultrasounds or microwaves, and 
supported ionic liquid catalysis.