Project

Development of an analytical platform for the valorization of agri-food residues

Code
bof/baf/4y/2024/01/929
Duration
01 January 2024 → 31 December 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Natural products chemistry
Keywords
biopesticides biomass valorisation Chemical analysis biostimulants
 
Project description

Thousands of tons of underutilized residues are produced on an annual scale from crop production. They are untapped sources of specialised metabolites that could be reintroduced in the production chain as extracts with biostimulant or biopesticide activity. To meet the current regulatory requirements for the approval and commercialization of such products, knowledge about their composition in terms of active substances must be acquired. Comprehensive chemical analysis is therefore paramount for unravelling this composition and allow not only their potential development as agrochemicals, but also the identification of valorisation routes and use destinations. Following the knowledge and experience generated in the research group in the last years regarding the analysis of bioactive extracts, the goal of this project is to develop an extraction-analysis platform designed to standardize this process, thereby enabling efficient identification of bioactive compounds. Ultimately, the discovery of potential applications for these discarded materials will be simplified.