BioStruct

Project Description

Synthetic composites, such as carbon and glass fibre, present significant environmental challenges, with 98% ending up in landfills and 80% of raw materials being sourced from outside Europe. In response, the EU-funded BioStruct project seeks to transform structural applications through the development of advanced bio-composites. Beyond addressing recycling challenges and reducing dependency on foreign materials, BioStruct extends its focus to marine construction, particularly boat building. By advancing accurate draping processes, developing material models that account for natural variability, and integrating nano-structured, bio-based sensors for load monitoring, the project is positioning bio-composites as a sustainable alternative in marine applications. This expansion into boat building aligns with the project’s overarching objective of diversifying bio-composite applications while promoting sustainable practices across industries.

Objective

Currently, bio-composites are used primarily in non-critical applications that do not require high mechanical performance. In contrast, synthetic composites made from carbon or glass fibre face significant issues, including challenges in recycling and reliance on third countries. Approximately 98% of these synthetic composites still end up in landfills, and around 80% of raw materials are manufactured outside Europe.

The BioStruct project aims to address these challenges by advancing the use of bio-composites for structural components and expanding their range of applications. To achieve this, the project focuses on:

• Developing an accurate draping process to control fibre orientation.
• Creating material models that capture the natural variability of bio-composite materials.
• Integrating nano-structured, bio-based sensors to enable load monitoring.

Through enhanced manufacturing accuracy and the introduction of control loops, the project expects to achieve predictable properties and consistent quality for bio-composites.

The project will investigate use cases in wind energy and boat building, with the aim of manufacturing a full-sized rotor blade and a ship hull to demonstrate the technical feasibility of bio-composites. These efforts are expected to achieve Technology Readiness Level 7 (TRL7) for the manufacturing technologies.

The consortium includes end users and partners specialising in automation, machine building, measurement technology, material manufacturing, and simulation software, ensuring comprehensive coverage of all development aspects. Given the predicted growth of the bio-composites market, which is expected to increase by a factor of 2.5 by 2030, the consortium anticipates a market potential of approximately €100 million by 2030.