Topic outline

  • What is this course all about?

    NOTE: this course requires compulsory attendance during the laboratory exercises! The exercises are scheduled to start on the 25th of February and going on until the end of March. There will be some flexibility in the schedule but all the participants should be aware that passing this course requires almost two weeks of full time work in the laboratory.

    Schedule and workload

    The teaching will start on Thursday 17th of January at Aalto Design Factory (Studio), 1-3 PM. It is important to be present then so please inform Kyösti ASAP if you cannot participate the first teaching session! The schedule of other sessions is announced here in MyCourses (click on the sections named after the teaching periods on the left).

    The course is taught during periods III-V (total workload = 5 cr * 27 h/cr = 135 h):

    Period III (7/1 - 22/2; workload 35 h)

    • Kick-off: forming the groups and starting learning on the group-work skills; getting acquainted with each other and with the subject. (4 h)
    • Instructing sessions. (6 h)
    • Self-studying, other activities (group work, presentations...). (25 h)

    Period IV (25/2 - 12/4; 80 h)

    • Fractionation exercise in the laboratory. (60 h)
    • Report writing, instructing sessions, etc. (20 h)

    Period V (15/4 - 31/5; 20 h)

    • Presenting the results, peer evaluation, and finalizing the report. (20 h)

    Course description

    During this course, student teams plan and carry out wood fractionation experiments in the laboratory. The results of the fractionation experiments are used as guidelines for planning changes in industrial processes of pulp mills, transforming them into multiproduct forest biorefineries. The course is structured to be a research project commissioned by a big pulp and paper company, which is willing to increase its product portfolio through modifying its mills' production processes. In addition to producing the end products with the wanted specifications, the student teams are responsible of providing justified evaluation on the economical and technical feasibility of the suggested processes.

    In addition to learning biomass fractionation in practice, another important topic throughout the course are working life competences, especially communication and teamwork skills. Therefore, in addition of working in the classes and laboratories of Puu 1 building, teaching partially takes place in Aalto Design Factory (ADF), where especially presentations in different contexts is practiced; also, giving and receiving feedback is a focus area during this course.

    Teachers

    Mr. Kyösti Ruuttunen is the responsible teacher of the course. Ms. Jaana Suviniitty is the collaborator from ADF, also providing a workshop on presentations in English. Lab exercises are instructed by Kyösti R., Ms. Oona Korhonen, Ms. Estefania Isaza Ferro, and Mr. Jinze Dou (Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems).

    The official course description with additional information can be found in the course syllabus and in Oodi.