Evaluation Report Publications of the Academy of Finland 1/11

3.2  Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is seen as an engineering science, interacting with chemistry but 
not being an integrated part of chemistry research. Only two groups under the label 
“chemical engineering” were visited by the evaluation panel (AU, PCC at ÅA), 
whereas some other groups were mentioned and evaluated based on written reports 

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only (LUT, UO). Some groups were not evaluated because they had been considered 
as parts of other fields (in particular environmental or energy research). It is therefore 
difficult to form an opinion on the overall qualities and scope of chemical engineering 
research in Finland.
The panel is of the opinion that there is, to some degree, a lack of interaction 
between chemistry and chemical engineering, and that most of the chemical 
engineering groups seem to be too isolated. There is a clear need for better nationwide 
collaboration between Finnish chemical engineering units. Cooperation between 
chemical engineering units and chemistry (or environmental or energy engineering) 
units would also be beneficial. Such collaborations do exist in some places (PCC at 
ÅA, the grouping of different units in a separate science centre at LUT), but not in all 
places (AU, UO). A recurring theme appearing in a number of chemistry units is 
biorefinery, either wood-based (in almost all units) or non-wood-based (UO). The 
rational design of biorefineries is a seminal example of a field in which cooperation 
between chemistry and chemical engineering would be beneficial.