BIO4Self wins third Award this year
The prestigious Global Bioplastics Award, presented annually at the end of the first day of the European Bioplastics conference, was won this year by Bio4Self, a consortium - co-ordinated by Centexbel - of research institutes and companies collaborating on a project to develop self-reinforced composites based on PLA fibres.
A whirlwind year for the Bio4Self project
The project has yielded a biobased and easy-to-recycle self-reinforced composite material based on PLA fibres with an inherent high stiffness. It has been a whirlwind year for the Bio4Self project: in March, a prototype car seat shell made of the self-reinforced PLA material – an application developed within the scope of the project took an Innovation Award at the JEC World show in Paris. In May, it was awarded a second Innovation Award at the Techtextil technical textiles show in Frankfurt.
Award winner: Guy Buyle, manager EU Research at Centexbel
The judges of the Global Bioplastics Award were equally impressed by the nconcept. "It shows, that the intelligent combination of different forms of the same versatile bioplastic material PLA can lead to sophisticated solutions that enable the use for much more than just packaging applications," said Michael Thielen, publisher of bioplastics MAGAZINE on presenting the award during the ceremony on 3 December in Berlin, at the 14th European Bioplastics Conference.
The consortium behind the project, which is funded by the European Research Fund H2020, includes among others, Centexbel (Zwijnaarde, Belgium), who is coordinating the effort; Fraunhofer ICT (Pfinztal, Germany) and the Institute of Textile Technology of the RWTH Aachen. There are a total of 15 actual partners and further a group of 9 partners who expressed their support to the consortium via a Letter of Support. The latter group forms the so-called Innovation Support Group or ISG.
The self-reinforced composite material (SRPC) developed within the scope of the project other partners is composed of two different PLA grades: a low melting temperature PLA grade to form the matrix and an ultra-high stiffness and high melting temperature PLA grade to form the reinforcing fibres. Easily recyclable and industrially biodegradable, the composites are designed for high mechanical strength and rigidity, as well as high temperature and hydrolytic stability, thus upgrading PLA to a material suited for more technical and demanding final applications.
The principle
Two different PLA grades are required to produce self-reinforced polymer composites or SRPCs: a low melting temperature PLA grade to form the matrix and an ultra-high stiffness and high melting temperature PLA grade to form the reinforcing fibres. Bio4self innovations overcome several challenges related to the production of PLA SRPC: formulation of a moisture/humidity-resistant PLA grade; melt extrusion of ultra-high stiffness PLA reinforcement fibres; development of (consolidation and thermoforming) manufacturing procedures to produce the highest performance SRPC material; and industrial scale-up of production.
Main advantages
- Biobased: composites made from two PLA grades with different melting temperatures
- Performance: high mechanical strength, temperature and hydrolytic stability
- Cost: far below carbon fibre composites, comparable to or even below SR-PP
- Upscalable: using commercially-available materials and industrial equipment
- EoL: re-usable, recyclable or industrially compostable as the composite is made of PLA
As a result, the PLA SRPC developed in Bio4self matches the requirements of current commercial self-reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. Self-reinforced PLA composites made of 0/90 fabric have a stiffness of 4 GPa, which is comparable to the stiffness achieved by self-reinforced PP, but the PLA SRPC has the advantage of using renewable materials with a better end-of-life perspective.
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