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There is a huge demand to utilize renewal side flows of different production processes to substitute existing fossil-based products or to develop and produce totally new products to the market. One underutilized side product is sawdust. Sawdust is very interesting as a raw material because of it´s structure, chemical components and availability globally. The objective of this paper is to analyze huge processing possibilities of sawdust. Three process concepts, which are in different development phases, are used as examples to illustrate the large variation of products. Production processes and novel products are challenging existing value chains in this business, which traditionally has been business interactions between mechanical wood processing and energy, because sawdust has mostly been seen as solid, renewal fuel. The value capture from sawdust enables novel value chains to many businesses like chemicals, food ingredients and cosmetics. This paper discusses about the transition from cluster to cluster business into sawdust ecosystem. The cases are evaluated based on current literature, bibliographic, patent searches and technology readiness level. The findings show, that sawdust processing business already fulfill the criteria for ecosystem. Post-print / Final draft

In this study, polysulfone/wood sawdust (PSf/WSD) mixed matrix membrane (MMM) was prepared as a novel substrate layer of thin‐film composite (TFC) membrane in water desalination. The main aim was to evaluate how different amounts of WSD (0‐5 wt%) and PSf concentrations (12‐16 wt%) in the porous substrate affect the properties of the final TFC membranes in the separation of organic and inorganic compounds. Morphological and wettability studies demonstrated that the addition of small amount of WSD (less than or equal to 1 wt%) in the casting solution resulted in more porous but similar hydrophobic substrates, while high loading (greater than or equal to 2 wt%) of WSD not only changed the substrate wettability and morphology but also increased and decreased the swelling and mechanical properties of substrate layer. Therefore, PA layer formed thereon displayed extensively varying film morphology, interfacial properties, and separation performance. Based on approximately stable permeate flux (ASPF) and apparent salt rejection efficiency (ASRE), the best TFC membrane was prepared over the substrate with 12 to 14 wt% of PSf and around 0.5 to 1 wt% of WSD. Although notable improvements in permeate flux were obtained by adding a small amount of sawdust, the results clearly indicate that the salt rejection mechanism of TFC membrane was different from the glycerin rejection mechanism. Furthermore, durability results of TFC membranes showed that in continuous operation for 30 days, TFC‐14/0.5 and TFC‐14/01 have the maximum plateau levels of stable permeate flux and salt rejection among the all TFC membranes. Post-print / Final draft

Herein, to meet the requirement of the stringent sulfur emission and discharge rate standards based on World Health Organization (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), polyamide/titanium dioxide (PA/TiO2) thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes were synthesized to remove sulfur compound from sulfur recovery unit (SRU) wastewater. The experiments were designed to appraise the effects of three independent factors including TiO2 nanoparticle concentration, transmembrane pressure (TMP), and operating temperature on membrane performance. Surface physiochemical and morphological properties of the resultant membranes were characterized with analytical techniques. The membrane characterizations revealed that the nanocomposite selective layer was formed on the surface of the substrate and its morphology and surface charge were affected by TiO2 loading. The performance test showed that TFN membrane was highly effective in sulfur removal as the minimum and maximum rejections with this type of membrane in the design space were 92.56% and 99.94%, respectively. In addition, the responses were predicted by the model equations designed via response surface methodology (RSM). Accordingly, the main effects and their interactions were statistically validated by the analysis of variance (ANOVA). In conclusion, the resulting TFN membranes demonstrated not only a very outstanding reduction in sulfur content (more than 97% below the aforementioned global surveillance standards’ level), but also overcame the trade-off effect between permeability and selectivity of the reference TFC membranes. Post-print / Final draft