Development of low environmental impact fire retardants for wood

Image

The overall objective of this Estonia-Latvia cross-borded program is to jointly develop sustainable and low environmental impact fire retardant to be used in wooden buildings and timber in general, suitable both exterior and interior use and by industrial and home users.

Wooden houses- and timber industry in Latvia and Estonia are well developed and is one of the most export-oriented sectors. According to the EU regulations it is mandatory to apply fire retardants (FR) on all public wooden buildings. Currently, the existing FR-s tend to leach out into environment due impact of rain and moisture, the protective effect decreases, and leached product might cause environmental harm in water and soil.

Developing such product is a complex process requiring interdisciplinary knowledge that is not available in one country and thus cross-border cooperation is inevitable. The knowledge of FR development and scale-up/production from Estonia is combined with FR testing, sustainability evaluation and end-user experience from Latvia.

Further information:

Lauri Vares, Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry (lauri.vares@ut.ee), University of Tartu, Institute of Technology

Project name: EE-LV00014 „Development of low environmental impact fire retardants for wood (FireStop)“

Partners: University of Tartu (Lead Beneficiary), MultiPro System Ltd, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Riga Technical University, LTD BBidea

Duration: 01.12.2023 – 30.11.2026

Budget: 621 827,50€, from which EU co-financing is 495 648,31€

Project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund, Estonia-Latvia programme 2021-2027