Aalto University is accelerating the development of the Ioncell fibre manufacturing method by building a pilot plant in the Aalto Bioproduct Centre in Otaniemi. The pilot equipment can be used to produce about 10 kilograms of textile fibre a day whereas so far, it has been produced manually in a laboratory with an output of 100 grams per day.
‘There is a strong interest in ecological textile fibres, and we get a lot of material requests from textile and fashion companies that we can’t meet. Thanks to the pilot plant, we can provide much larger quantities of fibre to be tested and collaborate with a growing number of companies,’ says project leader Professor Janne Laine, Aalto University’s Vice President for Innovation starting from 1 January 2019.
Preparations for building the pilot plant are already in full swing. If all goes as planned, operation will start during 2020. The scale of the investment is about EUR 4 million, and the process of finding business partners is already underway.
About Aalto University
AALTO University is a multidisciplinary university in the fields of Science and Technology, Economics, Architecture, and Art and Design. It has 409 faculty members and a student body of 20,000, 70% of which are students in Science and Technology. AALTO University was founded in 2010 by merging three Finnish universities: The Helsinki School of Economics, The University of Art and Design Helsinki, and Helsinki University of Technology. The three schools are all leading institutions in their respective fields and in their own right. Aalto University is a multidisciplinary community where Science and Art meet Technology and Business. The university is committed to identifying and solving grand societal challenges and building an innovative future.
