Competence Center CHASE GmbH

03/06/2026

CIRCULAR ECONOMY: A WORLD WITHOUT WASTE 🌍

Last week we visited Greiner AG in Kremsmünster, a global powerhouse in plastic and foam solutions. As part of the Upper Austrian State Parliament's Land Oberösterreich event series “Raus aus der Nebelzone - Wissenschaft bringt Orientierung”, our Scientific Director Christian Paulik shared key impulses on circular economy.

💡 He highlighted the global scale of plastic consumption: with around 400 million tons of plastic produced worldwide each year, mastering recycling and closed-loop material cycles is one of the defining challenges of our time.

Top-tier experts from research, industry, and politics joined forces to address the current challenges and future solutions related to recycling:

👉 Gernot Zitzenbacher, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria FH Oberösterreich

👉 Rebeka Früholz, K1-MET GmbH

👉 Katrin Fradler, Wood K plus Kompetenzzentrum Holz GmbH

♻️ The concluding panel discussion with Saori Dubourg (CEO of Greiner AG) and Rudolf Woelfer (Head of Innovation Centers at Borouge International) drove home a clear message: Europe faces a unique opportunity to take a leading role in sustainable materials management - provided, of course, that industry and research continue working together.

A big thank you to Max Hiegelsberger and the Upper Austrian State Parliament (Land Oberösterreich) for organizing this inspiring event, and thank you to Greiner AG for the warm hospitality!

📷 Land OÖ/Sternberger

01/06/2026

🏆 AND THE CHASE INDUSTRY AWARD GOES TO... : Huge congratulations to our colleague Markus Fritz! He has been honored for his outstanding diploma thesis „Simultaneous in-line Raman and mid-IR spectroscopy for monitoring of complex crystallization systems in the pharmaceutical industry”, completed at the TU Wien under the expert supervision of Bernhard Lendl, Karin Wieland, and Georg Ramer.

Your hard work truly convinced the jury of industry experts, Markus! 👏

The Highlights of the Ceremony:
📅 Markus presented his findings directly to the CHASE Partnerboard.
🤝 The award was presented by Walter Tesch (OMV; Chairman of
the Association of CHASE Company Partners), in the presence of our Scientific Director Christian Paulik and Alexander Preinfalk from our project partner Thermo Fisher Scientific.

💡 YOUR TURN: APPLY NOW! 💰
The CHASE Industry Award honors successful diploma theses written within CHASE projects. Sponsored by the Association of the CHASE Company Partners, the winner receives € 2,500 prize money and a unique stage to present to industry leaders!

➡️ The award is presented twice a year – your chance is now!
⏳ Submit before October 31, 2026.
👉 Find all requirements and apply here: https://www.chasecenter.at/industry-award

26/05/2026

CONGRATULATIONS: Dr. Camila Cabeza! 🎓🎉👏

We are delighted to announce that our former colleague Camila has successfully completed her dissertation as part of a CHASE-project, in close cooperation with TU Wien and AGRANA.Group Research & Innovation Center!

Her doctoral thesis, titled “Industrial Treatment of Organic Starch Hydrolysates,” represents a valuable contribution to research and industrial applications in this field! 🔬🌾

We sincerely congratulate Camila Cabeza on this significant achievement and thank her for her great dedication, scientific excellence, and outstanding collaboration. We wish her all the best and continued success in her future professional and personal life! 🚀✨

21/05/2026

THANK YOU: Hiden Analytical published a story about our novel approach to depolymerization kinetics! 🌐🔬

We used PHB hydrolysis as a case study, backed by gas-phase mass spectrometry analysis using their powerful HPR-20 R&D quadrupole mass spectrometer. This equipment heavily supports our research in the field of circular economy!

🚀 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 & 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:
• Our former colleague Norbert Hohenauer successfully analyzed various gas samples for his research. The results are published in Polymer Degradation and Stability under the title “From simulation to distribution: A novel approach to depolymerization kinetics using PHB hydrolysis as a case study” (with co-authors Dominik Wielend, Katharina Kelderer, Jan Michael Holzinger, Gunnar Spiegel, Clemens Schwarzinger, and Christian Paulik).
👉 Read the paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141391026000303?via%3Dihub

• Our Scientific Director, Christian Paulik (also Head of the Institute for Chemical Technology of Organic Materials at JKU - Johannes Kepler Universität Linz), wrote an insightful article about it.
👉 Read his article here: https://www.hidenanalytical.com/research/elucidating-biopolymer-hydrolysis-reaction-kinetics-with-help-of-gas-phase-mass-spectrometry-analysis

🇪🇺 𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸:
The new instrument will significantly contribute to our research project “BIOCYCLE-UA II”, supported by the federal government of Upper Austria (Land Oberösterreich) and the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE Österreich) within the EU-program IBW/EFRE & JTF 2021–2027 www.efre.gv.at

We are wishing the CHASE Biocycle team all the best and much success: Dominik Wielend, Anna Micanova, Simon Herber, Hanna Angster, Gunnar Spiegel, and Christian Paulik! 🧪👏

🧪Elucidating biopolymer hydrolysis reaction kinetics with help of gas phase mass spectrometry analysis

Using the HPR-20 R&D quadrupole mass spectrometer with heated Quartz Inert Capillary sampling, researchers at CHASE GmbH were able to characterise volatile decomposition products formed during autoclave hydrolysis, including propene and carbon dioxide, alongside atmospheric and water-derived species. These high-sensitivity measurements provided critical experimental validation for simulation-driven depolymerisation models, strengthening the interpretation of reaction pathways relevant to chemical recycling and circular economy strategies for biopolymers.

📖Read the full blog, written by Univ.-Prof. DI Dr. Christian Paulik, via the link in our bio.

18/05/2026

ROCKING AND WINNING: Our Karin Wieland, Area Manager for Process Intensification and Head of PAT-Team, gave a talk at EuroPACT 2026 on "Process intensification and the role of PAT for a circular economy in the chemical industry"! 🔬🔄

The European Conference on Process Analytics and Control Technology is a premier forum focusing on the latest innovations in process analytics, organized by DECHEMA. This year it again brought together experts from around the world at the Lyon Convention Center in France. 🌍🇫🇷

Highlights of the conference:

✨ Connecting with Christoph Haisch (SAB Chemicals) and Bernhard Lendl (TU Wien).
🚢 A conference dinner on a rocking boat.
🌸 Karin even won a Lego Orchid raffle at the Bruker booth – thanks for the flowers! 🎉

11/05/2026

HOME GAME: Our Senior Research Scientist Jan Niklas Pauk joined BioProcess International (BPI) Europe 2026 and it was a perfect fit - the continent's leading event for biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing took place just a few kilometers from our Vienna office! 🇦🇹

He presented his poster on "Model-Based Methods for Monitoring and Optimization of Protein Refolding Processes", giving a deep dive into his latest research. 🧪📈

💬 Niklas: "It was a fantastic opportunity to share some of my recent work, engage in thought-provoking conversations, and hear from brilliant minds across the biopharma and biotech space. A big thank you to everyone who engaged during the poster sessions and to the BPI team for putting together such a great event. Already looking forward to next year."

Thank you for your dedication and for pushing the boundaries of bioprocessing! 🚀

04/05/2026

BEST PAPER AWARD 🏆: Our Karin Kloiber, Area 1 Manager and Key Researcher for Digitalization, just came back with her colleagues Matthias Katschnig and Christoph Strasser from the AIProMex project by TCKT from the ICAT 2026 on additive manufacturing technologies in Maribor where she picked up the best paper award - congratulations! 👏

Karin: "The work is about predicting nozzle clogging in MEX printing before it happens, using advanced sensing and ML/AI.
Nozzle clogging is hard to catch because the variables that govern polymer flow, like melt pressure, local viscosity or memory effects, are invisible to standard printer control.

By the time the printer reacts, material and production hours may already have been lost. A challenge from the data perspective is that failures are rare, and rarely recorded with the right sensor equipment. A nightmare for the data scientist.

We addressed this with our ML/AI pipeline, designed for seamless retraining as production data grows or new types of events occur, lowering the annotation burden through automation and keeping full computational provenance with a metadata scheme across the workflow."

Yippiee! 🥳

And a huge thank you to Matthias and Christoph for the additional photos!

21/04/2026

POSTER SESSION WITH AN AWARD 🏆: Our Research Scientist Miranda Eisenköck made a lasting impression at the Spring SciX 2026 in Exeter, UK, where she presented her research and walked away with an award for engagement and interaction with the vendors - congratulations! 👏

SpringSciX is a premier international conference focused on process analytical technologies (PAT) and spectroscopy. Miranda presented her poster "From Impurity to Insight: Real-Time Water Monitoring in Solvent Recycling using MIR Spectroscopy", showcasing a collaborative project with Thermo Fisher Scientific and TU Wien.

Miranda: "I had the opportunity to present my work as part of a flash poster session talking about PAT and the in-line monitoring of an organic solvent recycling process, which sparked insightful discussions and new connections."

They also had the opportunity to explore the city of Exeter and, as Miranda admits, enjoyed "sampling some of the local beer 🍻."

Cheers! 😊

20/04/2026

OUR MOUTH IS A CHEMISTRY LAB: Our friends from Die Chemie explain why orange juice tastes bitter instead of sweet after brushing your teeth—and the culprit is, of course, sodium lauryl sulfate from the toothpaste. Because of it, we get foam, but also influenced taste sensors. It only lasts a few minutes, though, so cheers and have a sweet working week! 🧪🥂🚀

16/04/2026

FULL OF NEW INSIGHTS: Congratulations to our Research Scientist Mohammad Pourhosseinian and Senior Research Scientist and Team Lead Fluid Dynamics Bahram Haddadi on publishing a new review paper in Advances in Polymer Technology:
👉 "Starve Feeding in Screw Extruders: A Review"

Bahram Haddadi: "Starve-feeding is vital for modern polymer processing, yet its complexity demands a sophisticated analytical approach. In this work, we dive into the full spectrum of experimental and numerical methods that help us understand and optimize these complex flow regimes."

👉 Check out the full paper here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/adv/9495468