Dr Guilherme Apolinario Testoni, Eco-Technilin: “Natural fibres enhance the technical performance of composites”

JEC Composites: The importance of bio-based materials is ever-increasing for the composites industry. Given their recyclability and less dependence on limited resources, they are increasingly used to produce composites. What can you tell us about their performance?

Natural fibre materials are proving to be a highly valuable solution for OEMs that are willing to enhance their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy by employing technical, lightweight and sustainable materials. It is a significant challenge for companies that are wishing to transform the composites market towards decarbonisation.

Different markets experience the recent applications of Eco-Technilin materials, and the benefits of natural fibres in enhancing the technical performance of composites are increasingly demonstrated.

Sports and leisure are an interesting example of a technical application of natural fibres. For example, Babolat launched the Pure Aero tennis racket in 2022, and more recently the Babolat Pure Strike, in 2024. NF2 TECH (Natural Flax Filtration Technology) helps dampening vibrations and deliver optimised acoustics. Regarding snowboards, Rome designed the outstanding concept of Flax Impact Plates and Flax Walls. In this case, flax material enhances impact absorption properties and offers the ability to create rigidity and strengthen specific regions of a board.

Moreover, recently, a special composite lay-up was designed by Fischer Sports. The new Curv GT pushes the boundaries of flax fibres, being visible in the surface of skis with an elegant natural finish. This concept of visible flax was also employed in the electronic market, with the first computer using a bio-based flax veneer finish, the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen2.

JEC Composites: Natural fibres have long presented various problems, such as variable fibre quality, limited performance and high costs. What do you offer to overcome these problems?

It is indeed a very good question! Actually, the whole supply chain of technical flax fibres addressed this topic. During the last decades, we mobilised adequate resources to meet the growing demand in the sector, which is mainly driven today by the automotive market.

Back in 2008, one of the first vehicles containing Eco-technilin materials was the Opel Insignia. This vehicle was equipped with 2 kg of natural fibres. In 2016, the amount of natural fibre material increased to 6 kg/vehicle in the E-class Mercedes door panel. More recently, in 2023, we developed materials for the interior of the electric Megane, with the use of more than 20 kg of material per vehicle.

For the reasons listed above (CSR strategy, lightweight and sustainable materials, etc.), the composites market is paying attention to using natural fibres.  However, this calls to be reinforced by clear and robust information about the CO₂ impact of all the steps of the process, from the raw materials to the transportation to customer plants.

JEC Composites: Governments, regulatory organisations, OEMs and consumers require materials and process solutions that drive decarbonisation.

Definitely, we observe this big trend in the market today. In this framework, our value proposition is aligned with the European Automotive industry challenges by 2035, which is to reduce the CO₂ footprint of the automotive sector by working on two main steps in the lifecycle of a vehicle: use and fabrication.

In fact, car use is responsible for 65% of the sector’s carbon footprint, and part and raw materials are responsible for 17% of CO₂ emissions. A big trend is already underway to reduce CO₂ emissions from car, thanks to the electrification of engines. Actually, the European automotive industry aims to have 100% electric vehicles in 2035. This goal aligns with FIT FOR 55, a package of legislative proposals from July 2021 offering concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% – compared to 1990 – until 2030.

I believe we have a great opportunity to take responsibility for the outcome of our work and support automotive OEMs by developing robust, eco-friendly and lightweight composite materials.

JEC Composites: The European Green Deal requires products manufactured in the EU to be made from sustainable, recyclable or recycled materials in the future. How do you plan to respond to these requests?

Here, we address the second topic: reducing CO₂ emissions related to fabrication (raw materials and manufacturing parts). It is a front-page topic for the implementation of bio-based and low-energy consuming materials that can bring a virtuous cycle of recycling.

To sum up, we challenge the supply chain by recycling composite scraps and end-of-life parts. The idea is to recover scraps from the customer and reintroduce them in the cycle for manufacturing new sustainable, recyclable and recycled composite materials.

It is the result of 5 years of development that we are proud to bring to the market at an industrial scale. We have the potential to recycle 1,000 tons per year of scraps that were not valorised until now.

Technically speaking, we are able to introduce up to 30% recycled scraps without losing any mechanical properties of the standard material. Furthermore, this technology allow OEMs to reduce CO₂ emissions by 23% in weight equivalent comparison when compared to the same material without recycled scraps (source: LCA realised by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) in the framework of the RECYTAL project – Automotive door panel part). The advantages are substantial: recovering scraps from production, reducing costs of scraps treatment, outsourcing recycling activity, and taking action in favour of the CSR.

JEC Composites: The market of natural fibre reinforced composites has evolved greatly and cover today high performance industries such as automotive, sporting goods, even aerospace. What strategies does Eco-technilin use to target these markets?

We believe that the future of the technical composites market is driven by sustainability and innovation. In this framework, we build our strategic proposal through the UpGreen project, which is a 3-year global R&D project focusing on 3 areas for the composites industry:

1) First, optimising the performance of bio-based composites, thanks to a cost-effective, lightweight and recycled material: this project is called Recytal 2.0. It highlights the different ways in which we can use recycled waste from our customers or our in-house production, sub-products from the biomass transformation sector or other sources. This topic offers many possibilities and will be pushed forward.

2) The second topic was forged by analysing the technology used to manufacture interior parts in the automotive sector. We noticed that the current industrial park works mainly with thermoplastic processes, highly dependent on plastic injection. Therefore, the idea was to develop a new range of materials adapted to all kinds of transformation tools, including injection presses: this is Fibriboard. This project offers composite manufacturers the opportunity to use their current machine fleet to work with natural fibre composite materials without having to make further substantial investments. The result will be a substantial reduction in the cost of investing in equipment for new projects. In addition, we offer the possibility of assembling different types of material and supply pre-impregnated natural fibre thermoplastic solutions manufactured entirely in-house.

3) The aim of the third project is to integrate all the technologies in order to develop a multifunctional, aesthetic and lightweight product innovation. Ultimately, it is conceivable that competitive, lightweight and aesthetic materials could be produced without any major investment on the part of equipment manufacturers. The composite parts could be produced directly in the customer’s process, be 100% recyclable via the Recytal reincorporation process, and already incorporate an aesthetic layer on the surface. This project, called Linstetik, will enable the production of exceptional composite parts that are elegant, natural and durable.

Cover photo: Guilherme Apolinario Testoni, Eco-Technilin.