Keynote speaker
We are honored to welcome Professor Thad C. Maloney as our keynote speaker. He currently leads the Biobased Materials Technology group at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, focusing on developing next-generation fiber products and sustainable materials
Professor Thad C. Maloney has worked for three decades in the research and technology development of pulp and paper and allied industries. He has both practical experience and deep fundamental understanding of the behavior papermaking fibers and pigments in processing.
Fine-scale fiber fibrillation
Typical wood-based pulp fibers have a hierarchical structure with cellulose organized into fibrils, which aggregate to form macrofibrils and in-turn form layers and higher order structures. The arrangement of fibrils in the cell wall is at the heart of the important pulp properties and the ability to manipulate the fibril architecture opens excellent development possibilities.
In this paper, the possibility of producing fibers with enhanced fibrillation is discussed. The formation of pores (pores being the mirror image of fibril structures) is reviewed. The measurement and control of cell wall porosity is discussed. In most commercial refining operations fibrillation occurs on the macroscale, meaning fibril aggregates are separated from each other. By extending fibrillation into the meso and microscale, enhanced fiber properties can be achieved, and new product development opportunities emerge. A roadmap for the development of fine-scale fibrillation technology is laid out.