Heinzel-Mondi-Sappi And Aalto University Dissertation Awards To Teraloop's Meri Lundahl
Teraloop’s Head of Material Innovations Meri Lundahl has received the Heinzel-Mondi-Sappi Award and Aalto University Dissertation Award for her doctoral dissertation entitled Wet-spinning of Cellulose Nanofibril Hydrogels.
Heinzel-Mondi-Sappi Award recognizes annually outstanding publications having a potentially significant positive effect on the future of the pulp and paper industry. Lundahl’s thesis was awarded in category Cascaded Use of Wood, as it concerns novel wood-based materials made by spinning nanocellulose into filaments with various functionalities. Potential applications include wearable textiles, absorbents, diagnostics and reinforcement fibres in composite materials.
Aalto University Dissertation Award is granted to selected dissertations with remarkable scientific excellence and impact. The selection considers the input from the official pre-examiners and opponent.
Teraloop plans to use the results of the awarded thesis as a basis for its own project on biobased carbon fibre. Different spinning techniques applied to cellulose and other biopolymers offer a promising opportunity to obtain carbon fibre precursors from low-cost resources. Carbon fibre cost-reduction is an essential effort for Teraloop, as the flywheel rotor requires a carbon fibre reinforcement, which is the most expensive component of the current design.
