Estonia's significant mineral resource, peat, is currently mainly extracted and exported as growth substrates for European agriculture. We offer technological solutions to produce high-value materials from by-products/residue of peat production. We are exploring two different experimental chemical valorization directions for peat. Firstly, the production of carbon nanomaterials (carbon nanoparticles, carbon quantum dots CQD), which have a wide range of applications from biomedicine to optics and electronic components. Examples: bioimaging applications, portable sensors, solar panel components etc. The application of CQDs is rapidly developing and new start-up ideas appear often. Secondly, the production of chemically modified biopolymers as high-performance alternatives to petroleum-derived products such as construction panels, packaging containers or conventional adsorbent materials. The resulting products contribute to long-term carbon sequestration, helping to balance the carbon footprint of the peat industry.
Wood is the most abundant form of biomass used by industry and is the source of the three major biolpolymers in nature – cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. While cellulose is responsible for about 40-50% of the dry weight of wood, lignin content varies from 10% to about 35% across species. For decades, lignin has been seen as a bothersome side-product that needs removal at all cost. However, in the last decade, due to its polyphenolic nature, lignin has emerged to the focus of attention as a renewable alternative to crude oil based chemistry. The project aims to develop technologies for the extaction and fractionation of lignin and cellulose derived from low valorization level bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp or industrial wood-waste. The goal of the project is to develop practical and environmentally friendly functional materials (e.g. thermo isolators and surfactants). Also, the project will identify and characterize novel industrial enzymes from extreme thermophilic organisms.
There is a high risk that the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 variants) continues to spread in its specific forms, including through direct contact with surfaces, and this will require effective materials and sterilization methods. Ethanol-based products have advantage in the direct contact, but we have developed surfactants with different and wider uses for disinfection. The new disinfectants contain biodegradable ingredients that remain on the surface much longer to inactivate bacteria, viruses, fungi and material viruses, incl. coronavirus. The range of new products includes: (1) POM / PLA composites made by the melt extrusion process and well suited as a coating material for the hospital environment; (2) nanoemulsions of essential oils that characterized by controlled loading; (3) treated highly hydrophobic surfaces, (4) lignin-based materials (as gels and films), which also have antiviral and antibacterial properties. They are classes of products worth developing and that our Estonian entrepreneurs could use.