The strategic objectives of COMET are: developing new expertise by initiating and supporting long-term research co-operations between science and industry in top-level research, and extablishing and securing the technological leadership of companies. By advancing and bundling exting strengths and by integrating international research expertise Austria is to be strengthened as a research location for the long term.

The competence center BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH is funded by BMIMI, BMWET and the federal states Vienna, Lower Austria und Styria within the scope of COMET - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies. The program COMET is managed by the FFG. 

As a link between academic research and industrial technology development, our vision is to develop and demonstrate sustainable and circular biorefinery processes and technologies for producing green gases, green liquid fuels, and green products, all of which will support the transition to a climate-neutral, zero-fossil-carbon economy. Consequently, the resource basis will be extended to include organic residues, wastes, and carbon dioxide. Conversion technologies will be enhanced or redesigned to ensure their efficient and economical operation, and to allow the value cycles based on new feedstocks to be integrated into the system. By using our excellent experimental facilities, ranging from lab to pilot and demonstration scale plants, our goal is to conduct applied research of the highest scientific quality.

We apply advanced digital methods for technology development, and for the basic automation, optimization, and monitoring of the operation of individual technologies and entire plants. With the help of holistic and technology-neutral planning tools, we ensure that biorefineries and energy supply technologies are optimally integrated into a sustainable, renewable energy system.

In April, Matthias Kuba will take up the endowed professorship for thermochemical synthesis gas production at the Institute of Process and Energy Engineering at BOKU Vienna. His focus is on the development of innovative technologies to produce green gases, sustainable fuels and recyclable chemicals.  

The chemical industry and related production companies work with complex process chains in which numerous individual technologies are linked. Sustainable innovations, often summarized under the term “biorefinery”, must be considered in an integrated manner. The interlinking of different process steps represents a major challenge.

The key to sustainable processes

One focus of Kuba's research is the use of fluidized bed systems. In these, biogenic waste material is converted into high-quality synthesis gas at over 800 degrees Celsius. Once this gas has been purified, various synthesis processes can be used to produce synthetic natural gas substitutes, sustainable fuels and chemical products. “Such technologies make a significant contribution to the defossilization of industry,” says the process engineer. The professorship at BOKU, endowed by BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH, deepens the cooperation between basic university research and industry-related technology development and sustainably strengthens the innovative power in this future-oriented field.

Scaling and teaching

In addition to laboratory research, Kuba is also dedicated to scaling up such processes in the new BOKU pilot plant to demonstration scale, which is available with the Syngas Platform Vienna. The aim is the industrial implementation of complete process chains from biogenic residues to marketable end products. “By developing technologies from laboratory scale to industrial demonstration, BOKU's research is brought close to large-scale implementation,” explains Kuba. Close cooperation with industrial partners ensures practical research with a measurable impact. At BOKU, Kuba also develops courses with a process engineering focus. He has already received the “Best Teaching Award” at TU Wien for his innovative didactic approaches, which are linked to industry in a practical way.

Academic career

Matthias Kuba studied process engineering at the Vienna University of Technology and already dealt intensively with thermochemical synthesis gas production in his master's thesis. In his doctorate, carried out at BEST, he researched ash chemistry and process optimization of fluidized bed processes. After a post-doctoral research phase in Sweden, he headed the research group for thermochemical gas production at BEST and later became co-head of the “Syngas Platform Technologies” division. In 2024, he habilitated at the Vienna University of Technology in the field of “Process engineering for the thermochemical conversion of biomass and residues”.

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