The Department of Wood Processing (founded in 1979) was renamed the Chair of Wood Processing at TUT in 1992 and the Wood Technology Laboratory in 2017. From 1980 to 1992, the main research area of the then TPI woodworking institute was the technological processes of the pulp and paper industry and the technology of wooden boards. In 1996, the last flight of TTU Wood Processing Technology graduated engineers specializing in pulp and paper industry technology.
In 2012, Jaan Kers started working as a professor and head of the chair of woodworking, and in 2013 he launched a new international master's program "Wood, plastic and textile technology", which is still successfully functioning, in which the technologies of wood polymer composites and cellulose were again taught.
In 2015, on the basis of the Law of TUT, eight professorships engaged in teaching, research and development activities in technical sciences were established, financed from the state budget, including the e-professorship of wood processing.
In 2020, the joint project of the Erasmus+ program with several master's degrees and five international universities to conduct the study program "European Master in Biological and Chemical Engineering for a Sustainable Bioeconomy" was launched. In the spring of 2021, 17 BIOCEB students came to study at TTU's Wood, Plastic and Textile Technology international master's program, and they carried out study and research in the teaching and research laboratories of Materials and Environmental Technology and Chemistry and Biotechnology.
For the effective and sustainable use of wood and wood-based composite materials, it is necessary to understand the physical-mechanical and chemical properties and technological processes resulting from their construction. The wood and composites working group of the wood technology laboratory develops biocomposite materials (wood polymer composites, reed biocomposites, hemp long fiber composites, cellulose derivative biocomposites) in cooperation with the polymers and textile technology laboratory working group for various applications (packaging materials, food containers, insulation materials). In cooperation with TTU's lignin chemical and enzymatic working group, we are developing new lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment technologies, organosolv et al.
