AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre, coordinates the FOREST project, a new EU funded research to delve into advanced lightweight bio-based or recycled materials to facilitate the decarbonization of the transport sector. The project consortium is made of 14 partners from 8 different countries developing innovative bio-based polymers & additives and recycled carbon fibres for sustainable and safe transport applications.
Image Credit: AIMPLAS
The FOREST project will last until May 2026 and is fully aligned with EU 2030 Climate and Energy challenges. FOREST will reduce the structural weight of vehicles by providing light components made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic. In this way, less fuel and energy consumption will be necessary to cover the same distance, thanks to the development of novel lightweight multifunctional biocomposites as a competitive alternative to conventional composites.
These biocomposite candidates will be obtained using one-shot manufacturing techniques, involving Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) processes to build and test prototypes with improved multifunctional properties (mechanical resistance, fire-retardant, EMI-shielding) for transport application.
In addition, new chemistries based on high-biobased content for polymers and additives will be developed. In this regard, the fossil sources dependency will be reduced.
Furthermore, FOREST is focusing on efficient methods to recover 100% of carbon fibre carbon waste to develop high-quality semi-finished materials for valuable transport applications. And finally, the consortium will research the influence of the multifunctional properties on the biocomposite. Therefore, the project will combine the biobased, recycled and multifunctionality material nature to obtain sustainable solutions for the bus, aeronautic and automotive sectors.
More than 50% Sustainable Materials in Lightweight Products
This project is committed to effective circularity solutions applied to multifunctional biocomposite constituents with more than 50% sustainable materials contained in lightweight products.
FOREST is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and Innovation programme. Partners from Spain, France, Germany Turkey, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic and England collaborate to pave the way towards the decarbonization of mobility. The partners are AIMPLAS, Arkema, BASF, Clariant, Fraunhofer, IRT Jules Verne, MBHA, Mercedes Benz, AIRBUS Atlantic Composites, CRF, Angaz Tech, Fenix TNT, Bitrez and Gen2 Carbon.