Water, food security and environmentally friendly energy - The greatest challenges of our time

The overall goal of the project is to develop processes to increase the value of biomasses that today are considered as waste and are mostly used as a fuel in heat and power plants.

This project aims to convert by-products (primary waste) from the agro and forest industries into added-value materials that will be used as growing substrates for protein-rich mushrooms (primary product).

The fungus breaks down cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin in the substrate during the growing period, leading to a "modified feedstock" (secondary waste) that will be used to produce activated carbon (secondary product) to remove contaminants such as heavy metals from water, and as the main component of supercapacitor electrodes (tertiary product).

Knowledge on issues about recycling of waste from the food industry (e.g. spent mushroom substrate) as a raw material for the production of activated carbon for water purification and component in supercapacitors is something that is missing in the literature.

When we use renewable domestic resources to a greater extent, instead of importing raw materials from other countries, the trade balance is also promoted.