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Biorefineries and Herbert Sixta in spotlight at 2022 seminar

The annual Biorefineries Scientific Seminar on 30 March 2022 featured presentations on the latest developments in biorefineries and biopolymer chemistry and engineering at Aalto from the research groups of Herbert Sixta and Michael Hummel. As the final seminar for the now-Emeritus Professor, Sixta reviewed decades of advancements in forest-based biorefinery.
Herbert Sixta presents at the Annual Biorefineries Scientific Seminar thanking colleagues for 15 years at Aalto
Herbert Sixta reviews 15 years at Aalto University at the 2022 Annual Biorefineries Scientific Seminar on 30 March
Ville Alopaeus (far left) and Jukka Seppälä (far right) attended the seminar.
Ville Alopeaus, Petri Uusi-Kyyny and Jukka Seppälä at the Annual Biorefineries Scientific Seminar in 2022
Kristiina Kruus and Anna Stiina Jääskelainen discuss the seminar with a colleague.
Kristiina Kruus and Anna Stiina Jääskelainen discuss the seminar with a colleague
Herbert Sixta receives a "scrapbook" of memories from 15 years at Aalto from the smiling Marja Rissanen
Herbert Sixta is presented with a scrapbook from his research group by Marja Rissanen
Herbert Sixta wears the Marimekko Ioncell(R) scarf presented by Pirjo Kääriäinen at the Annual Biorefineries Scientific Seminar 2022
At the seminar, Herbert Sixta received a Marimekko scarf made with Ioncell(R), presented by Pirjo Kääriäinen

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CHEM_Bio_Marianna_Granatier_From wood to fiber

Biorefineries

Group led by Emeritus Professor Herbert Sixta

Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems
Biopolymer Chemistry and Engineering, photo: Valeria Azovskaya

Biopolymer Chemistry and Engineering

Group led by Professor Michael Hummel

Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems
A portrait of professor emeritus Herbert Sixta.

Professor Emeritus Herbert Sixta: “The most important task of a professor is to educate young people, to help them build their career”

After an extensive career in academia and the forest-based industries, Professor Herbert Sixta has retired. Having worked in Austria for 25 years, Sixta arrived to Aalto in 2007, where his research in biorefineries helped create, among other things, the Ioncell process, a technology that turns used textiles, pulp, and paper into new textile fibres sustainably and without chemicals.

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Prize winners

Marcus Wallenberg Prize to Professor Herbert Sixta for the development of Sustainable wood-based textile fibres

The 2022 Marcus Wallenberg Prize is awarded to Professor Herbert Sixta and Professor Ilkka Kilpeläinen for the development and use of novel ionic liquids to process wood biomass into high-performance textile fibres.

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Blue Ioncell top

Pilot production line for Ioncell launched — a top made with the stronger-than-cotton ecofibre gets its colour from Finnish fields

In addition to producing the innovative textile fibre, the pilot production line will be used to develop wood-based carbon fibres.

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Ioncell kierrätyspahvista

Luxury fibre from recycled cardboard

Prize-winning spinning method can reduce the environmental hazards of textile production.

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