Smart biomass for future materials

In the same format as TED-talks, KSLA will arrange a range of presentations of on-going research on the development of future smart materials. A number of ideas and discoveries that have implications for agriculture, forestry and the society as a whole will be presented in short, informative and hopefully inspiring talks. Within the time-frame of a few hours you will get several possibilities to discover things that you have not known earlier and get new perspectives of how biomass can be tailored to become important components in materials in our future society.

The background is that new recyclable materials are urgently needed. Alternatives to fossil based materials are searched for intensively all over the world and it is in focus in the discussion about a bio-based economy.

Today we typically refer bio-based materials to modern materials that have undergone more extensive processing. Such materials fall under the broader category of bio-based products. It includes materials, chemicals and energy derived from renewable biological resources. Most bio-based materials are biodegradable. We often think about examples such as engineered wood, cellulose, casein, cotton, polylactic acid, starch, oils, etc. However, there are other possibilities, the biomass itself can be altered and designed de novo to produce valuable products: we can “grow” new raw-materials tailor-made for specific end-products, we can also produce valuable materials by mimicking nature. At this meeting at KSLA, researchers mainly from SLU will present their bio-based research initiatives. You are most welcome to participate at the meeting and take part in a glimpse of the future of material research.

For more information and program, please read PDF-invitation above.