\ Innovazione \ SPEED IS BIO-RENEWABLE

Dedicating the final year of research to the production of a perfectly functioning solar automobile: this is the choice that engineering students of the University KU Louvain in Belgium can make. Once having created the prototype, it can be entered in the World Solar Challenge, a biennial competition where models designed by students from around the world challenge one another. In the last edition of the race was the automobile known as “Solar One”, a carbon fibre vehicle created by the Punch Powertrain Solar Team.

The body of Solar One was produced with pre-preg technology using a resin developed by AEP Polymers, a start-up active in the R&D of new materials, and produced by Cardolite, a world leader in the production and sale of cardanol derivatives, an inedible natural oil extracted from the shells of peanuts. Pre-pregs are reinforcement fabrics produced with carbon fibres, linen, mixtures etc. impregnated with a latent formula that typically uses epoxy, containing one atom of oxygen that acts as a bridge between two carbon atoms, up to the moment of forming. Created for aerospace applications, pre-pregs are currently used to produce auto parts, racing hulls and sports equipment and are among the most promising materials in the field of composites. In effect, they have turned out to be an excellent choice for the production of Solar One, which travelled over 3,000 kilometres that separates Darwin from Adelaide without any problems, arriving in fifth place.

AEP Polymers, specialised in the enhancement of biomass waste to create new polymers and formulas, has contributed to producing one of the resins of the epoxy composite used to manufacture automobiles. “The polymer matrix of the composite structure of automobiles contains a resin obtained from cardanol, able to guarantee excellent adhesion to carbon fibres and to improve the absorption of vibrations,” explains Andrea Minigher, one of the founders of AEP Polymers. “The use of this resin in an epoxy formula has permitted us to create a pre-preg with 45% bio-renewable content”.

One of the strong points of the project has been the use of eco-sustainable materials. In recent years research has concentrated on the development of new materials obtained from renewable natural sources, alternatives to common materials derived from petroleum, infamously characterised by a high environmental impact. A large number of polymers are used in the industrial sector that constitute components and objects of common use: electronic devices, tools, materials for infrastructure, piping, panels, paint products, insulating and padding foam, etc. Consumption of these polymers reaches various millions of tonnes per year and most of them derive from petroleum. For some time now, the priority has developed on a global scale to find resins and polymers on the market that are derived from renewable sources and that can offer performance comparable to the materials currently distributed.

“We are also working on other biomasses such as, for example, lignin, a waste material deriving from industrial production processes of cellulose and bio-refineries”, concludes Minigher. “This new approach sees among other things AEP Polymers engaged as a part of the European project called SmartLi (Smart Technologies for the Conversion of Industrial Lignins into Sustainable Materials), financed by the Bio-Based Industries Public Private Partnership within the Horizon 2020 Framework programme of the European Community, for the creation of new polymers and materials for industrial uses.