For ten years, the professor of the Institute of Chemistry (IQ) of the University of Brasilia (UnB), Brenno Amaro, has been dedicated to research on nanometric materials. Among its outstanding projects is the one focused on the production of arbolina, a nanoparticle with a biostimulating and biofertilizing effect that increases crop productivity. The technology was developed in the UnB laboratories and validated by the Brazilian Society for Agricultural Research (Embrapa).
The professor is one of the founders of Krilltech, a company specializing in agro-industrial nanotechnology (AgTech) that bets on arbolina as the biofertilizer of the future. The product is pure, non-toxic, non-biaccumulative and luminescent, capable of increasing production by up to 40% and enriching the nutritional quality of food.
“Biofertilizer is made up of organic carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. This is basically what the plant needs. It is ‘organic’ because non-toxic, it is made from material produced in nature. And it’s sustainable, so it doesn’t generate solid or liquid waste in production,” Amaro explained in an interview with Conexión Planeta.
Contents
Price
In 2021, the professor was chosen to receive the Fernando Galembeck Innovation Award from the Brazilian Society of Chemistry. The award honors competition and innovation capacity and recognizes the work of national researchers in science and technology.
“This is another great opportunity to show society the importance of stimulating and investing in research and innovation, which in Brazil, for the most part, is carried out in public universities,” said Marcos Juliano. Prauchner, director of the UnB Institute of Chemistry. , in the price of the faculty.
Brenno Amaro already had knowledge of fluorescent materials and bioimaging when he started his scientific production at UnB. In 2011, with the arrival of Professor Marcelo Rodrigues at IQ, who started producing carbon nanomaterials, the two professors combined their qualifications and started studying nanoscale materials. Brenno’s experience allowed modifications to be made to the surface of the carbon materials produced by Marcelo.
Initially, they used cow dung as a carbon source, which was transformed into nanoscale particles. According to Brenno’s assessment, they had a very high technological value. In 2015, Embrapa researchers found that the properties of these particles could cause positive responses in certain plant crops. It was the beginning of the partnership between UnB and Embrapa which resulted in the patent and the license of the biofertilizer arbolina.
With information from UnB Notícias. life cycle