FLOWER

The FLOWER project aims to develop locally produced flax fibre reinforcements for the composites industry at a lower cost than existing products, while significantly improving the performance, environmental balance and end-of-life of current products.

Composites are widely used in industry: they account for around 20% of the mass of a car and almost all of that of a pleasure boat, but they are currently generally made of glass fibres and a non-recyclable petro-sourced resin.

The aim of the FLOWER project is therefore to develop two main types of innovative flax reinforcement, particularly in terms of their mass per unit area and their architecture, which are high-performance and best suited to the specific requirements of the composites industry.

In this way, the project will play an active role in meeting the shared needs of the cross-Channel area, particularly in terms of research and environmental protection, while at the same time enabling the development of local flax production and processing industries. Ultimately, the Flower project aims to reach three main application sectors: boating, automotive and advertising, in particular advertising displays, by 2022.

To carry out these initiatives, the project brings together partners with complementary skills to cover the entire value chain: from the agricultural production of fibres to R&D and the marketing of industrial parts.

Led by the University of Southern Brittany (IRDL Laboratory), FLOWER brings together 4 academic partners (University of Southern Brittany, INRA Nantes, University of Cambridge and University of Portsmouth) and 4 industrialists (the companies Kaïros, Teillage Vandecandelaere, EcoTechnilin and Howa-Tramico) located on both sides of the Channel.

Within INRA, the BIA Unit will be in charge of the "treatment" component of the FLOWER project, aiming to modify the raw materials flax fibers for the two major families of targeted composites, in order to gain in performance according to the 'product' specifications. The pretreatments envisaged will explore different biological or physical means: microbiological or enzymatic pathway, ionizing radiation, plasma, ozonolysis, ultrasound during a thesis co-supervised by J. Beaugrand and F. Guillon (Equipe PVPP) and A. Bourmaud (IRDL). A thesis co-supervised by the teams PVPP and MC2 (J. Beaugrand/S. Guessasma) will deal with the multi-scale damage of flax bundles, studying the structure-behavior relationship using experimental and numerical approaches. This thesis will be done in close collaboration with an industrialist working on the production and processing of flax (Depestele group). Another thesis directed by A. Bourmaud from IRDL and co-supervised by J. Beaugrand, in collaboration with F. Jamme from Synchrotron SOLEIL, will focus on exploring the development and structure of flax fibers for use as reinforcements for composite materials. Finally, 1 to 3 other theses will be planned as part of this project, subject to obtaining additional funding.

• Project duration: february 2018 – april 2022
• Academic partners:
  • Université de Bretagne Sud
  • INRA de Nantes
  • University of Cambridge
  • University of Portsmouth
• Industrial partners:
  • Kaïros
  • Teillage Vandecandelaere
  • EcoTechnilin
  • Howa-Tramico
• Coordination : Laboratoire IRDL, Université Bretagne Sud
• Total budget: €4,717,674.56 (including €3,179,427.16 of FEDER co-financement)