The first day was dedicated to the equipment available at Lund University of Technology, specifically the Biomass Steam Pretreatment facility, the 4D Imaging Lab, and nCHERM – National Center for High-Resolution Electron Microscopy. After a joint introduction, all conference participants received a guided tour of the infrastructures with the opportunity to ask the researchers questions.

In the evening, there was the opportunity for all conference participants to present their research and network in a poster session. Abstracts for the posters can be found online here..

During the second day, the focus was on the use of synchrotron facilities for research and development of future materials from forest raw materials. A special focus here was  ForMAX, the unique beamline at MAX IV designed for forest-based materials and processes.

During the morning, the participants got examples of what can be done at synchrotron facilities and examples of completed experiments from both an academic and industrial perspective.

Kim Nygård, responsible for ForMAX at MAX IV, stated that although he has given over 100 presentations at various conferences about the possibilities with ForMAX, this was the first conference with users and results from ForMAX!

Not least presented Eskil Andréasson, Tetra Pak, and Linnéa Björn, Chalmers, for the very first time the results from very first industrial experiments at ForMAX! The conference also provided an overview of what other industries are doing through the invited speaker Stefan Norberg from AstraZeneca.

A common denominator in all presentations was the importance of collaboration. The results that were shown were all telling examples of how, through successful collaboration – between researchers in academia, between academia and industry, and with the researchers at synchronous facilities – results can be achieved that can provide the key to the future’s sustainable materials from the forest.

The conference ended with an appreciated study visit to MAX IV and ForMAX.