History and uses of peat

Building material and filters

Peat has been mixed with many substances to produce a variety of building materials e.g. peat moss mixed with materials such as tar made a very pliable material which was combined with plaster of paris to make insulating material and wadding.

Peat itself was used as a building material in the 17th and 18th centuries when poor families in Ireland who could not afford traditional building materials used dried block of turf to construct small houses.

Peat is used in a number of applications to filter gases, odours and liquids. Activated carbon from peat is used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries to absorb impurities in liquids or gases. Board na Mona have developed several biofiltration systems where peat fibres provide a large surface area for the attachment of microbes and chemicals. Puraflo is one of their peat systems designed for the treatment of septic tank effluent.