Biorefineries
Group led by Emeritus Professor Herbert Sixta
Group led by Emeritus Professor Herbert Sixta
Group led by Professor Michael Hummel
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.
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.
In addition to producing the innovative textile fibre, the pilot production line will be used to develop wood-based carbon fibres.
Prize-winning spinning method can reduce the environmental hazards of textile production.