On September 27, the final of the international competition "Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge - Europe" (BISC-E) was held, in which, among the participants from five countries, Latvia was represented by the team "B-CharGen" with the idea of processing poultry feathers into valuable carbon materials for use in accumulators and batteries.
About the contest
BISC-E is an annual student competition organized by the international non-profit organization "Bio-based Industries Consortium" (BIC), where participants present ideas for innovative products and technologies using renewable resources - biomass. The aim of the BISC-E competition is to promote entrepreneurship and reward excellence in biomass processing research and development, as well as to promote public awareness of the importance of the bioeconomy.
Latvia is participating in the BISC-E competition for the second time and this year the Latvian team was among the five best in the final. In total, 21 teams participated in the first round of the finals, each of which had won the national selection of their country.
In Latvia, the BISC-E national final took place in April of this year during the international conference for young researchers "BtechPro2024". The jury pronounced the team "B-CharGen" as the best, in which Kalvis Liepiņš (Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry), Linda Laima Alsiņa and Mairis Iesalnieks (Riga Technical University) participated.
The team admits that participating in the competition was a valuable experience, during which experts helped assess the strengths and weaknesses of their innovation, allowing it to be further refined.
The national coordinator of the competition in Latvia is the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry, and preparations are already underway for the announcement of the next round of the competition.
Information about the BISC-E competition is available online.
The idea of B-CharGen
In collaboration of LSIWC, RTU and foreign cooperation partners, research projects have been carried out on the carbonization of biomass, such as wood or its processing products, by obtaining bio-char. Bio-char is a multifunctional carbon material obtained from a renewable raw material, which allows to replace such unsustainable resources as coal and synthetically obtained carbon black.
The idea of "B-CharGen" is based on the processing of difficult-to-manage waste - bird feathers - into valuable carbon material. In this way, a knowledge-based contribution to Latvia's economy would be made and several important ecological issues would be solved:
- An application for the biomass of chicken feathers would be found, which would support companies such as AS "Putnu fabrika Ķekava" in waste management and achieving zero-waste production.
- Valuable biological carbon material would be obtained, which, because of the chemical composition of bird feathers, would be rich in nitrogen atoms, which in turn would improve the electrochemical properties of this material, as evidenced by the research conducted by team members at RTU.
The obtained materials have a high potential for practical application as an electrically conductive carbon additive in batteries, electrolyzers, sensors, etc. for improving electrode conductivity and performance.
“B-CharGen” tea, video is available here.
The recording of the BISC-E European final round is here.