Researcher of the month is Michael Hummel

Michael Hummel is currently working in Herbert Sixta's Chemical Pulping and Wood Refinery team at Aalto University School of Science and Technology as a post doc researcher. He is part of the Ionic Liquid Aided Fractionation and the Cellulose Regeneration project, which both belong to the research program FuBio (Future Biorefinery) of the Forestcluster Ltd. In 2009, Michael completed his Doctoral Thesis at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He was focusing on new synthetic pathways to heterocycles, particularly ionic liquids.

The Ionic Liquid Aided Fractionation project is developing new solvents to dissolve ligno-cellulosic materials selectively. Consequently, it’s the goal of the Cellulose Regeneration team to turn these solutions into fibers and films with enhanced properties. Therefore, it’s necessary to control the spinning process. Hence, Michael was evaluating the most suitable dry-jet wet spinning facility for this purpose through collaborations and discussions with textile research institutes in Finland, Germany, Poland and Austria.

Since the spinning machine is still under construction Michael is bridging the gap with co-operations in Poland and Germany to get first results concerning pulp regeneration. Furthermore, the FuBio group at Aalto University already started to prepare the spinning dopes and characterize them rheologically.

The best thing in his work is to investigate the regeneration process together with well-experienced researchers. This co-operation and interaction between different research groups are the amenities which Michael appreciates the most.

When not working, Michael spends time to visit and explore Finland more closely.