Towards a Circular Economy in the Aviation Sector Using Eco-Composites for Interior and Secondary Structures. Results and Recommendations from the EU/China Project ECO-COMPASS

Era of bast fibers-based polymer composites for replacement of man-made fibers

Bast fibers are defined as those obtained from the outer cell layers of the bast of various plant families. They are finding use in textile applications and are widely used as reinforcements for green composites, as bast fibers are perceived as "sustainable". There is a growing demand for bast fibers across the world due to their renewable and biodegradable nature. The bast fibers are mainly composed of cellulose, which potentially considers the growing techniques, harvesting and extraction processes of bast fibers most used to produce fibers with appropriate quality to apply in the daily lives of modern men and women in contemporary society. This review paper looks at many aspects of natural fibers, with a focus on plant bast fibers, including their impact on prehistoric and historical society. This review shows that bast fibers are competitive compared to man-made fibers in many applications, but variability in mechanical properties and low tenacity may limit their use in high-strengthh composites and extend to, particularly in aerospace, automotive, packaging, building industries, insulation, E-composites (Eco composites), geotextiles and many other applications are currently being explored. Considering, important characteristics of bast fibers include physical, mechanical, and chemical properties. This makes bast fibers one of the most important classes of plant fibers to use as reinforcing agents in thermosetting/thermoplastic polymer matrices. And the effect of bast fibers as reinforcement in the properties of ECO-composites, GREEN-composites, BIO-composites, lightweight composites. Bast fibers play an important role in sustainability, the preservation of the health of the environment, the well-being of the next generation, and even the daily lives of men and women in the contemporary world.

Life-Cycle Analysis and Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of a Bio-Based Structural Adhesive

For this present paper, we performed a life-cycle analysis and an evaluation of the mechanical properties of an epichlorohydrin/cardanol adhesive in a neat and a nano-filled form. Six different potentials and the cost of the adhesives were derived and compared with those of a commercial epoxy resin. Overall, the neat adhesive was found to be more environmentally friendly and to have a lower production cost. However, the addition of carbon nanotubes increased both the environmental footprint and the cost. The evaluation with regards to the mechanical properties was performed through a comparison of bulk properties and joint properties with the respective average values of commonly used structural and nonstructural adhesives from the literature. It was found that for all properties except for the Young’s modulus the novel adhesive had values greater than the average values of the cosmetic adhesives and for most properties it had values close to the average values of the structural adhesives. Moreover, the presence of the carbon nanotubes enhanced the mechanical properties of the adhesive except for the tensile strength.