Nature Refines: Organic residual products as raw material for water cleaning and energy

Using waste from primary waste streams from the forest industry, agriculture, aquatic biomasses, and secondary waste streams such as residues from biogas production has clear environmental benefits such as less pollution and more biodiversity. Moreover, the recycling of waste contributes to the circularity of society and a near-zero waste generation concept.

The project will use these wastes to produce activated carbon for subsequent use in water treatment and energy storage devices. As less waste ends up in landfills or is burned, the emissions of greenhouse gases decrease. Today, every electronic device we use has supercapacitors made using fossil graphite. Mining of graphite (hard coal) is associated with pollution problems. Therefore, the use of alternative carbon-rich waste would help reduce this issue.

Nature Refines focuses on transforming biomasses that today are considered waste and are

mainly used as fuel in heat and power plants into added-value products such as activated carbon. The project aims to use organic by-products from agriculture, forest, livestock, aquatic biomass (e.g., algae), and digestate from biogas industries to produce activated carbon.

The activated carbon will be used as raw material to produce:

1. Water filter devices (secondary product-1) to remove contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and heavy metals from different types of wastewater (e.g., communal sewage water, leachates from landfills, paper industry, mining industry, and laboratory-made effluents with well-defined composition)
2. Supercapacitor electrodes can be used in a variety of electronic devices. The results from the project will allow for the replacement of fossil elements (such as graphite used in the construction of supercapacitor electrodes) with CO2-neutral biomass and increase the use of renewable domestic resources instead of importing raw materials from other countries.

Project webpage at Interreg Aurora External link. | Project webpage at BioFuel Region External link.

Financing and partners

The project is financed with the support of Interreg Aurora for cross-border cooperations in 2021-2027. It is co-funded by the European Union, Region Norrbotten and the Regional Council of Lapland.

Project partners:

• Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå
• Luleå University of Technology
• NOVIA University of Applied Sciences, Vasa Finland
• BioFuel Region, Umeå

Project duration:

2023-09-01 to 2026-08-31