BioStruct

Project description

Currently, the use of bio-composites is limited to less critical applications that do not have significant requirements in terms of mechanical performance. However, the use of synthetic composites made from carbon or glass fibre has several difficulties related to recycling and dependence on third countries. About 85% of these synthetic composites still end up in landfills and about 80% of the raw materials are currently manufactured outside of Europe.

The project addresses the challenges of using bio-composites for structural parts and aims to increase the range of applications in which bio-composites can be used. This will be achieved by developing an accurate draping process to control fibre orientation, by creating material models that capture the natural variability of the material and by integrating nano-structured, bio-based sensors for load monitoring. Through the increased accuracy and additional control loops in the manufacturing process the consortium expects to achieve predictable properties and constant quality.

Within the project, use cases from wind energy and boat-building will be investigated, aiming at the manufacturing of a full size rotor blade and a ship hull to demonstrate the technical feasibility and achieving TRL7 for the manufacturing technologies. In addition to the end users, the consortium consists of partners from automation, machine building, measurement technology, material manufacturing and simulation software to cover all aspects of the developments. Based on the predicted growth of the bio-composites market, the consortium expects a market potential of about 100M€ by 2030.

Project objectives and technical innovation

The BioStruct project aims at developing manufacturing technologies that enable the use of bio-composites in areas, where parts have some requirements on mechanical performance. It particularly deals with parts used in wind energy applications and boat-building.

The key technical innovations are:

• Highly accurate draping process for natural fibres, which is able to control fibre orientation and which reduces the variability of mechanical properties of the final part.
• Material models for bio-composites: numerical models will be developed that are suitable for finite element calculations and that can capture the natural variability of natural fibres.
• Integrated, bio-based sensor systems: nanostructured, bio-based sensors will be integrated to perform structural health monitoring during the service life of the component.
• Closed feedback loops in manufacturing: inline measurements will be used to perform feedback process control, to ensure suitable quality and predictable mechanical properties.

PROFACTOR is taking care of the project coordination and will design and build the hardware setup of a sensor for the inspection of natural fibre materials. The adaptation of an existing draping robot cell for the usage with natural fibre materials and the design, development and manufacturing of a load sensor are additional tasks that will be carried out

Structural parts made of bio-materials for wind energy and boat-building

• Natural fibres such as hemp or flax can be grown in Europe and reduce the dependency on raw materials coming from third countries. As an additional benefit the impact on greenhouse gas emissions is much lower than for carbon or glass fibre.
• Composite parts reduce weight and increase the efficiency of transport applications.
• Proven process chains from the design over manufacturing to re-cycling will enhance the ability to establish circular processes in Europe.