Moving biocomposites into second gear

Abstract

Although biocomposites have been around for some years now, their use is still far from mainstream. Yet, the material properties of biocomposites and their current applications show a lot of potential for more sustainable, lightweight and structural applications in many industries. Long fibre biocomposites show good specific properties and offer unique benefits like high vibration damping. Furthermore, they have a significantly lower environmental impact than aluminium and synthetic composites. This project was commissioned by NPSP, a company with over 20 years of experience in the biocomposite industry. They experience a rising interest in biocomposites in recent years, but large scale applications are still rare. This project aimed to explore the potential of long fibre biocomposite applications in the mobility and transport industry. These industries feel the need to become more sustainable and the characteristics of long fibre biocomposites show other potential benefits. After initial material research was performed, nine weeks of project acquisition followed. Six companies participated in a short track of a maximum of two meetings to explore biocomposite potential for their corporation. The results of this process are analysed to obtain insights into what boundaries and opportunities companies see in biocomposites. From the results can be concluded that interest in biocomposites is present in these industries. The potential benefits of saving weight and opting for a more sustainable material are acknowledged by most companies. The main boundaries currently preventing companies to apply biocomposites are the high perceived risk of applying the material, high costs, a challenging end of life scenario and lack of more ‘off the shelf’ semi-manufactured biocomposite products. The current position of biocomposites can be referred to as the so-called ‘chasm’ in the technology adoption lifecycle (figure 1). At this point, an innovation is accepted in a few small niche markets but needs the acceptance of more mature companies and industries to grow or even survive. Assumed at the start of this project was that larger scale applications would lead biocomposites across the chasm. So after ten weeks of project acquisition, one case was selected to continue with in the second phase of the project. The process of this project showed that material innovation is a slow process. Reaching a collaboration and develop a biocomposite application in a half year project proved to be optimistic. Since the selected case showed slow progress, more effort could be spent on improving the credibility of biocomposites at NPSP and evaluating new material development opportunities. These efforts led to the development of a website proposal, a new sample set and three development opportunities to enable widespread adoption of long fibre biocomposites.