Biorefineries
Group led by Emeritus Professor Herbert Sixta
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.
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Biopolymer Chemistry and Engineering
Group led by Professor Michael Hummel
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.
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.
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.
Luxury fibre from recycled cardboard
Prize-winning spinning method can reduce the environmental hazards of textile production.
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The Metex Prize 2026 winner is Hana Rehorčíková
The Metex Prize is awarded for excellence in Master’s thesis work done in collaboration with a technology company or to promote the significance and use of design and art in Finnish industry.
Ornamo Awards '26: The Design Forerunner Award to service designer Mariana Salgado
The Design Forerunner Award goes to service designer Mariana Salgado, who brings design into climate research and builds people’s participation in the sustainability transition.
Doctoral thesis: Kata Fodor examines sustainable diets – between the plate and the planet
In her doctoral thesis, Kata Fodor examines how more sustainable diets can be promoted through the design of environments, spaces, infrastructures, and cities.