What are the benefits of combining three master thesis in different fields of science in the same project? Metsä Group, St1 and AFRY piloted this together with Aalto University, LUT university and University of Helsinki in the context of industrial CO2 capture. The outcome was a success with synergy benefits.
CO2 capture from industrial processes will play an important role in achieving global climate neutrality by 2050. Carbon capture with permanent storage is called CCS whereas in CCU the captured CO2 is utilized as raw material for producing products like fuels, chemicals and plastics. If the CO2 originates from biobased sources or from atmosphere it is possible to create negative emissions.
Industrial carbon capture is a fast developing novel field with many open questions. Value chains are not in place yet, and also the regulative environment is still under development. To obtain more clarity and insights in the field which is of common interest to Metsä Group, ST1 and AFRY a collaborative project was set up.
Active collaboration throughout the project
The three companies involved brought a specific perspective and research question in the project
- Case Metsä Group focused on the regulative environment of bio-CCUS in Finland and EU and was carried out in collaboration with Kai Kokko, professor of environmental law at University of Helsinki
- Case St1 focused on carbon footprint calculations for power-to-methanol and power-to-HDPE and was carried out in collaboration with Risto Soukka, professor of Environmental Technology at LUT University
- Case AFRY focused on the business opportunities and value chains of the process-based industrial CO2 and was carried out in collaboration with Olli Dahl, professor of Clean Technologies at Aalto University
Each of the cases constituted one master thesis carried out in the premises of the company. The students worked thus in different organizations but they collaborated closely for the common context.
During the project four common workshops were held where the students presented their progress and the topics were discussed with a transdisciplinary approach. Participants involved all the professors involved, the supervisors in companies as well as few invited key experts from companies and universities. In addition to these workshops the students met and sparred each other on a regular basis.
The project culminated in a seminar held in January 2024 in Metsä Group’s auditorium where the students together presented their key findings for invited stakeholders covering representatives from ministries, associations, companies, investors and academia and research centers.
Success factors and lessons learned
Project targets were well achieved: it can be concluded that the outcomes exceeded the sum of performed individual tasks. It was great to work with talented and open-minded people and it was the commitment and spirit of people involved which was the main success factor. Other crucial elements included continuous collaboration, proactivity of the students working in the project and a common general enough topic context.
In our last meeting together the whole project group was assessing the project and an excellent idea of improvement came up: an executive summary combining the main findings of the three master thesis would be useful in boosting the dissemination of results
“The project's standout feature was its multidimensional development, facilitating deeper application of knowledge and findings by exploring additional facets beyond typical thesis scope”, highlights Emilia Tognetty, who did her master thesis in the case AFRY.
Ville Varpula and Ira Wallén, the two other students who worked in the project share Emilia’s views.
“Writing a master's thesis as part of this collaborative project proved to be an invaluable learning experience. It enabled me to understand CCUS projects from a business perspective, allowing for a more pragmatic approach to the subject of my thesis", says Ira and Ville continues.
“I will especially remember our workshops and meetings in which ideas arose very abundantly.” All three emphasize that the development of CCU technologies and value chains is of crucial importance “CCU can mitigate the climate change and should also increasingly be viewed as a circular economy solution.”