IMPROVING RECYCLABILITY OF THERMOSET COMPOSITE MATERIALS THROUGH A GREENER RECYCLING TECHNOLOGY BASED ON REVERSIBLE BIOBASED BONDING MATERIALS

VIBES project presents an innovative solution to resolve the end-of-life issues of thermoset composites based on the development of a new green technology focused on the controlled separation and recovery of composite material components by means of developing customised biobased bonding materials (BBM).

BBM are biobased chemical moieties that will decompose under specific external stimuli (temperature, UV or electrical pulse) allowing the separation between the matrix and the reinforcing material, and facilitating the dissociation of the polymer chains of the resins to favour their efficient processing and recycling through a green washing bath, recovering the monomers/oligomers and fibres for their upcycling into new products.

VIBES will study and combine three different chemical approaches to obtain BBM: vitrimers, Diels-Alder, and supramolecular architectures.

VIBES project will directly contribute to achieve SIRAs objectives in KPI1, KPI2, KPI5 and KPI8 and to demonstrate the solution decreasing the amount of non-biodegradable polymers sent to disposal or discharged to the environment by at least 40%.

VIBES consortium involves 13 partners (industrially driven): 4 RTD (AITIIP, LEITAT, ULIM and DITF), 7 SME (SP, BCIRC, F&D, ARCHA, Q-PLAN, IDEC and JUNO), 1 Large Companies (ACC), and 1 OTHER (PLATA) accounting to 3 BIC associated (AITIIP, LEITAT, and ULIM).

The proposed 48-months will comprise a total estimated budget of 5,299,800 ; being the 20.3% covered by consortium own contribution (in-kinds) and adding 524,311 in additional investments during the project implementation and 9,385,000 envisaged to upgrade TRL after the end of the project.

Benefits will be significant in terms of companies growth (23.2%), increasing jobs (37 direct, 1800 indirect) and turnover (124M) by promoting at least 2 new sector interconnections in the new created Intrinsic Recyclable Thermoset Composites Value Chain