Using agro-waste flax to upgrade recycled plastics (RePlaFlax)

The general aim of the RePlaFlax project is the development and dissemination of the necessary knowledge to effectively use agricultural material from flax cultivation as a reinforcement material in polyolefin and PLA (polylactic acid) plastics. This is based on recycling material flows and primary materials in a closed-loop recycling system.

Within the Replaflax project, the KU Leuven research group PropoLis is working together with Centexbel VKC, HS Bremen and Fraunhofer Umsicht, being Flemish and German partners.

6 different flax types were analysed to investigate which one is most appropriate as reinforcing material within a (recycled) thermoplastic compound. Dimensions, fibre stiffness, strength and availability have been investigated. Based on those results, one type has been selected to be used within compounding steps and further processing experiments.

in the summer of 2022, a larger amount of the particular flax type have been collected and have been cutted by an industrial partner within the project. This material has been distributed to the different partners within this project In that way, each partner can do its own research work.

Fraunhofer Umsicht will compound flax fiber material within a (recycled) PLA matrix.

KU Leuven propolis together with Centexbel VKC processed different compounds in which the cutted flax has been added to virgin and recycled poly olefine materials and blends.

The produced compounds have been used to injection mould samples to perform mechanical tests.

In the next period, the different compounds will be compared. Also applications on industrial scale are investigated.

HS Bremen is performing advanced fibre characterisation tests