Project
About the project
ELIOT aims to provide new innovative and green technologies for EoL of commonly used natural fibres and biobased resins with increased resource efficiency and fully align these biomaterials with the circular economy principles (Figure 1).
To this end, the project will propose and develop innovative solutions for the EoL of the new generation of biocomposites by:
- Reviewing the current treatment technologies for conventional FRP composite waste
- Evaluating their potential suitability to be applied to the biocomposite waste and selecting those treatment alternatives that appear as the most feasible
- Tailoring the selected treatment technologies to the characteristics of biocomposites and testing them at laboratory scale
- Demonstrating their technical feasibility and life-cycle sustainability under pre-industrial scale.
Different EoL approaches will be evaluated, including mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological methods for waste recovery and recycling.
A comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the EoL methods in terms of cost and environmental sustainability will be conducted.
ELIOT will set the basis for a wider uptake of biocomposite materials in the aircraft industry (and other industrial sectors using composite materials) by providing cost-effective methods for their EoL treatment.
Objectives
Main objective at ELIOT
Main technical objective to be achieved by the consortium in this project is the full-scale demonstration of the most promising EoL methods for biocomposite waste. Full-scale demonstration will be provided for 2 EoL methods for 2 target biocomposites, respectively, including their technical validation at pre-industrial scale and their validation in terms of life-cycle sustainability. These EoL methods will be ready to be further scaled up in industrial environments.
To achieve this main objective, the consortium will need to achieve the following specific technical targets:
1. Definition and development of potential recovery solutions for biocomposite waste from EoL aircraft
A preliminary definition of EoL methods for the biocomposites targeted in the project will be based on a comprehensive review of the tate-of-the-art technologies applied for the conventional FRP counterparts (as well as any other previous study dealing with EoL of biocomposites). The technologies that will be critically reviewed will include mechanical, thermal, chemical and biological methods. The proposed EoL methods will rely on those existing technologies that show some transferability potential for the treatment of biocomposite waste. These will be further developed and tailored to the specific needs of the target biomaterials (natural fibres and biobased resins), obtaining a list of potential EoL methods with higher level of characterisation (in terms of resulting products, production yields, expected costs, environmental loads, etc.).
2. Selection of the best EoL methods for biocomposite waste
The EoL methods defined for the biocomposites targeted in the project will be assessed against a set of feasibility criteria, including technical feasibility and scalability, cost effectiveness, potential marketability of the resulting products, environmental performance and circularity, alignment with policy framework, etc. A weighted decision matrix will be developed to compare the EoL alternatives with respect to the multiple criteria, which will be weighted according to their levels of importance. Multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) will thus be applied to rank the EoL methods based on their overall feasibility level.
3. Testing of the EoL methods for biocomposite waste at laboratory scale
The most promising EoL methods will be tested
in laboratory, tailoring the methods to the
specific characteristics of the biomaterials
targeted in the project. A Design of Experiments
(DoE) will be comprehensively defined for each
EoL method and composite material to be tested,
defining the parameters to be applied during
each process step (samples, reagents and
auxiliary materials, temperatures and pressures,
processing times, etc.). These processing
parameters will be monitored and optimised
during laboratory trials based on the resulting
output products, which will be fully characterised
(in terms of yield, composition, purity, quality,
etc.) and checked against the technical
specifications for equivalent products in the
market. Special attention will be given to the
scalability of each method during the laboratory
tests, considering up-scaling factors and carrying
out techno-economic analysis and streamlined
life cycle assessment (LCA).
4. Full-scale demonstration of the EoL methods for biocomposite waste
Among the EoL methods validated in laboratory,
those showing the best results in terms of
potential scalability will be demonstrated at a
larger scale. The demonstration will involve the
testing of each EoL method at pre-industrial scale
using the pilot plants of project partners and
samples of biocomposite panels with a size of 1
sqm. A target biocomposite will be selected (in
agreement with the Topic Manager) for testing
each EoL method at pre-industrial scale. The
processing parameters will be monitored and
optimised during the testing trials at pilot plant,
collecting primary data to fine-tune the technoeconomic
analysis and conduct a comprehensive
LCA.
By reaching the objective and targets described above the consortium will contribute to reduce the environmental footprint of the aviation industry in the airframe parts that nowadays are manufactured with composites. Aviation must move towards more sustainable resources and solutions, with an industry that is clean, competitive, safe and secure.
Results
Consortium
Team
Nora Lardiés
Senior consultant. Chemical Recycling GroupProject role: Technical coordinator.
Expert on landfill, incineration and thermal technologies: pyrolysis (conventional, fluidised-bed and microwave-assisted). nlardies@aimplas.es +34 663459064
Rajesh Mehta
Senior Consultant.Climate, Air & Sustainability
Expert on gasification, solvolysis and dissolution. rajesh.mehta@tno.nl +31 621957530
Tom Ligthart
Expert sustainability assessment Climate, Air and SustainabilityProject role: LCA and sustainability expert tom.ligthart@tno.nl +31 615571118
Judith Kessens
Senior Project ManagerClimate, Air & Sustainability
Project role: Project Management TNO, Data Management, Dissemination & exploitation board judith.kessens@tno.nl +31 622374428
Sergio Fita
Project Manager at AIMPLASProject role: Project coordinator sfita@aimplas.es +34 663460764
Gallery
