Cooking and chemical engineering with the CHEMARTS Cookbook

In the coming years, our material world will change dramatically. In parallel with climate change, our lifestyles will also change. It is becoming increasingly important to ask the following questions: How can we make flexible and transparent wood-based materials? What kinds of materials can we derive from trees, while still respecting the preciousness of nature? Could the innovative use of renewable cellulosic materials change our material world?

The good news is that the awareness of ecological issues is increasing, actions such as recycling are becoming part of our everyday routines, and materials now play a role in several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Renewable raw material sources and unused side streams or waste are being researched around the globe. More and more designers and other creative minds are becoming engaged in innovative material research and development processes, together with scientists and engineers. The CHEMARTS team is a part of this movement.

CHEMARTS is a long-term strategic collaboration between two Aalto University schools, The School of Chemical Engineering (CHEM) and The School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS). The schools merged their forces with the aim to invent new ways to harness wood and cellulose. The idea is to research the performance and design of advanced cellulosic materials for innovative uses.

The CHEMARTS Cookbook then, gives both simple and more advanced ideas and recipes for hands-on experiments with wood-based materials. The book showcases the most interesting explorations focusing on raw materials that are processed either chemically or mechanically from trees or other plants: cellulose fibres, micro- or nano-structured fibrils, cellulose derivatives, lignin, bark and wood extractives. 

Get your physical or digital copy of the cookbook via this link.