The development of fuel cell technologies is currently one of the most important environmentally friendly alternative energy topics. To our knowledge the wood-derived carbon materials have not been employed for the preparation of carbon catalyst support for HOR and ORR. We intend to make an essential breakthrough in this area and give additional value to the wood-industry waste which usually will be just burned or will become the waste-issue. Using long term and in-depth knowledge of Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry in carbon material synthesis, high surface area carbon nanostructures will be synthesized from the wood, cellulose and cellulose production residues and employed as the catalyst support material for the fuel cells, metal-air batteries and ultracapacitors. Our goal is to create cheap and environmentally friendly carbon materials that would substitute expensive carbide-derived carbons, carbon nanotubes and graphene.

In the frame of SuNaMa project innovative nanocarbon materials will be synthesized from the waste of wood industry, biorefineries, as well the pulp and paper industry. Industrial waste will be used to synthesize novel, highly conductive, electrocatalytically active, durable, cost effective and high surface area nanocarbon materials. Novel nanocarbon materials will be achieved by activation and pyrolysis approach together with heteroatom doping. These materials are potential candidates to be employed in low carbon energy technologies such as ultracapacitors, metal-air batteries and fuel cells. This would represent a significant breakthrough in the renewable and low-carbon energy technology sector and exponentially widen the market with an environmentally friendly, low-cost technology with a substantial impact on reducing CO2 emission as well the environmental hazard produced various industries.

In addition to this, the project SuNaMa involves collaborative research in fundamental and applied electrochemistry. This will enable the applicants to get acquaintance with several active research groups in Europe, especially in Baltic states. This will create opportunities not only between those who collaborate in the present project, but also to others who want to have a contact point for collaboration, especially for young researchers in Europe who are eager to share their expertise. Last but not least, boosting the development of novel non-platinum anode and cathode catalyst in low temperature fuel cells, thus deploying cleaner and more efficient energy technologies, will afford secure and sustainable flows of energy, contributing to future economic prosperity and competitiveness of Europe.

The objectives of the SuNaMa project are clearly novel with a high degree of challenge and sophistication, and have been focused to improve the performance of the state-of-the-art ultracapacitors, metal-air batteries and fuel cells as well significantly reduce the price of these technologies.  The present project involves collaborative research in fundamental and applied physics and chemistry, which enables the applicants to get acquaintance with several active research groups in Baltic States and Norway. Using in-depth knowledge of Glomment Technology AS in biorefining chemistry and comprehensive know-how of carbon material synthesis brought by Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (LSIWC), porous nanocarbon materials will be synthesized and employed as the electrode materials. Outstanding record in the relevant methods of carbon material synthesis and modification, together with the applicants’ extensive expertise in wood and biorefining chemistry gives good opportunity for effective design and modification of these nanocarbon materials in order to achieve a best electrode material for ultracapacitors and metal-air batteries and competitive catalyst support material for low temperature fuel cells.

Project implementation: 24 months, from 2022-01-01 till 2023-12-31

Total financing of the project: total project costs: 200000 EUR

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