Thermoplastics are part of our everyday life and are present in countless products for many different applications, such as packaging, agriculture, vehicle and aeroplane parts, and many other consumer goods.
Over recent decades, the growing concern about climate change has prompted the development of sustainable thermoplastics with minimal environmental impact.
Challenges related to the end of life of certain products and to their sustainable origin need to be addressed in order to make the most of plastics. Sustainable thermoplastics can help to minimise the environmental impact of plastic materials and goods, contributing to:
Circularity
Health and safety
Mitigate climate change
Save energy
Reduce CO2 emissions
Industrial-scale transformers and consumers expect the same quality and usability from this new generation of materials, even if they are produced from renewable or biomass sources. Further research is therefore required to make sure they can outperform their current non-sustainable counterparts while resulting cost effective and suitable for their specific applications.
CIDETEC Surface Engineering develops sustainable thermoplastics, from designing and producing formulations, through to the implementation of strategies focused on reusing biomass waste.
Valorisation of biomass waste: Proprietary technology for reuse of keratin from poultry sector waste as an additive in biopolymer formulations. Keratin can help increase the biobased content of formulations and enhance biodegradability.
Developing biobased plastic compounds with several end-of-life scenarios, including tailor-made biodegradability.
Developing sustainable thermoplastic polymers with tailor-made properties to fulfil highly demanding industrial requirements: high mechanical performance, improved thermal stability, cost competitive products, etc.
CIDETEC Surface Engineering supports the European Union ' s strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy, and is firmly committed to speeding up its transformation towards an even more circular and resource-efficient plastic economy.
For the whole plastic industry value chain: raw material suppliers, part and component manufacturers, end-users/OEMs.
End users:
Automotive
Aeronautics
Public
Transport
Furniture
Packaging
Agrofood
You name
the next
application
We have an interdisciplinary team with strong skills and extensive experience in different industrial sectors, capable of carrying out cutting-edge research focused on different needs. CIDETEC Surface Engineering also has fully equipped laboratories for synthesising, processing and characterising the physical and thermo-mechanical properties of thermoplastic polymers:
For the design and processing of thermoplastic compounds, including injection moulding and extruder machines, from lab to pilot scale production.
For testing and characterisation of materials: morphology, structure, chemical composition, and other mechanical and physical-chemical properties such as rheology, thermal and dynamic properties.
