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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

PACKAGING PROTECTIVE ELEMENTS MADE FROM CELLULOSIC FIBRES

Objectives of the commitment

- Substitute virgin plastics protective packaging foams with fibre based materials.
- Reduce the use of virgin plastics from fossil sources.
- Increase the amount of recycled fibre-based waste.
- Contribute to the circular economy through the use of sustainable materials capable to be reused and recycled and finding new uses.
- Improve the paper and board recovering and recycling flows by preventing the inclusion of odd materials.
- Resource and energy saving by using recycled fibre-based materials.

Description of the activities

Selection of raw materials:
• Selection of the fibre fraction
• Selection of the foaming agent from natural sources
• Requirements of other raw materials

Fibre-foam expected properties
• Establishment of the basis properties and minimum values required compared to the traditional plastic foams
• Range of densities
• Development of procedure for the quality evaluation

Description and optimisation of the manufacturing process at pilot scale
• Raw materials ratio
• Setting of the manufacturing parameters
• Other manufacturing aspects: energy requirements, manufacturing rates, etc.
• Technological limitations/barriers

Fibre-based foams quality
• Evaluation of fibre-based foams quality according to the procedure and minimum requirements. (That evaluation will be also used for the optimisation of the pilot manufacturing process).

Industrial implementation
• Up-scaling parameters
• Definition of the facilities required: raw materials storing, machinery, final product stocking, etc.
• Machinery: development/adaptation of production units
• Personnel: estimation of initial resources, degree of specialisation, risk evaluation, training
• Investment and other economical aspects: estimation of the initial investment, estimation of the market quote and initial production rate, market share, amortization and period for the investment return
• Other aspects

Description of the expected impacts

• Sustainability: reduction of fossil raw materials requirements, reduction of waste generation (plastic foams) and better use of natural resources as stated in EU environmental policies on waste treatment.
• Social impact: partnership will lead towards a circular economy by promoting the development and use of innovative recycled products, by using improved production systems and the better technologies. That will facilitate job creation and the development of new skills.
• Economical: New developed eco-materials and the validated final application will contribute to increase the competitiveness of both fibre-based and packaging industries. That aspect will provide the added economic aspect to generate new market products with a by-product approach meaning using recovered materials as raw materials. Main beneficiary sectors are: waste management, fibre-based (paper and board) industry and packaging industry. Protective packaging end users will also take benefit.

Coordinating organisation & role

Name of the coordinating organisation: AIDIMACountry: SpainEntity profile: OtherRole within the commitment:

Coordination, networking, Dissemination, Identification of further partners, identification of possibilities for pilot projects, coordination of the steering committee, lead of management team

Other partners

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.

Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.

Fundacion Cidaut

Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.

RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)

Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.

Universita' di Cagliari

Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.

Relight

Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.

Piaggio Aerospace

Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

Blackshape Aircrafts

Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

KU Leuven

Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.

FIDAMC

Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.

COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER

Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.

Existing EU Contribution: No

Period to implement the commitment: from 01-06-2016 to 31-05-2020