SSUCHY’s Project – 3 years already !

Highlights for Year 3

All SSUCHY’s partners were gathered for the 3-year Meeting at the end of last August. Due to COVID-19 situation, the gathering was done remotely and it will be followed by a 2-day meeting at the end of September, including workshops to plan for the last year of the project. “We are all looking forward to that final year and to close all the nice collaborations we have been developping in the past 3 years”  – concluded Vincent Placet, Coordinator of the Project.

Focus on the Main Outcomes

SSUCHY’s technical workpackages became more mature in its 3rd year and interconnections between partners is starting to give tangible outcomes.

Applied Research

Polymers

Nice results from Stockholm University, Université de Bourgogne & CNRS to transform wood fractions into building blocks for thermoset & thermoplastic polymer were obtained.

Notably, a published paper by Quentin Ruiz from Laurent Plasseraud’s lab in Université de Bourgogne managed to create a matrice – Biogelnox – compatible with industrial scale production. The biobased epoxy resin obtained by their process showed similar and – sometimes better – mechanical and thermal properties compared to the traditional DGEBA benchmark.

Additionally, a paper published by Ivan Kumaniaev from Joseph Samec’s group in Stockholm University did successfully uptake downstream residues of birchbark fractionation – primarily serving as a building block for biobased thermoset polymer manufacturing – into a biofuel manufacturing process. We are very proud of the highly interdisciplinary approach also involving Karel Van Acker’s group (KU Leuven) and Vincent PLACET’s group (Université de Franche-Comté).

Hemp Fiber Reinforcements

Thanks to great joint work from ENIT & ENSAIT related to the primary and secondary processing of Hemp Fibres, hemp reinforcement greatly progressed and a batch is currently under production at in Linificio‘s facilities. It will be further used in SSUCHY’s demonstrators.

Demonstration Cases

Cockpit Panel

The Cockpit Panel for Electrical Aicraft has been entirely redesigned by two of our partners, Bristol University lab ACCIS and EADCO GmbH a Bavarian SME. They did a tremendous job making a biobased panel made of epoxy resin, integrating the Flaxtape, a biobased material recently produced by French company. The core of the panel is made of a sandwich composite. It is composed of an epoxy/flax composite and aerospace-graded foam with a bio-based content of approximately 40% in weight.

The great achievement of SSUCHY’s partners regarding that demonstrator panel is to have passed the EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) regulations. Indeed, the panel fulfilled the very harsh aircraft specifications and certification rules (CS-23). To our knowledge, SSUCHY’s demonstrator panel is currently the only biobased structural cockpit part to have reached performances compatible with such requirements.

Green Loud Speaker

Regarding leasure application, the first ” Green loud speaker” belonging to the Precision Series from Wilson Benesch reached its first complete form ! It is currently undergoing vibro-acoustic tests at FEMTO to compare the biobased speaker with its fossil-based counter part. More information to come.

Monocoque Scooter Frame & Trim floor panel

Monocoque Scooter frame from NPSP & Trim floor panel for cars from Trèves are also quite advanced and we will be sharing more detailed information before the end of the year.

Great Progression in Sharing Scientific & Technical Results

Participation in External Events

Vincent Placet (project’s coordinator, UFC), Aart Van Vuure and Pierre Ouagne (Executive Board members, KUL and ENIT) gladly represented SSUCHY in the BBI Stakeholder Forum in December 2019. The star of the booth was NPSP‘s Van-Eko Scooter, which was specially brought to Bruxelles for the occasion. More on our dedicated article.

Due to the COVID-19 situation and the cancellation or post-poned events,  SSUCHY’s partners only participated in 3 scientific congress this year (compared to respectively 10 and 12 for the Year 1 and Year 2 respectively). Everyone is looking forward to 2021 and the coming opportunities : JEC2021, BIOKET2021,  ICNF2021, Fiber Society Spring Conference 2021 , ELB , JNC22, ICCM23, SAMPE 2021 and more !

Scientific Production : Quantity & Quality !

Between September 2019 and August 2020, SSUCHY’s partners published 10 peer-reviewed articles, 6 conference proceedings & scientific articles.

More on our Outcomes Section dedicated to Scientific Articles from 2020 & 2019

The project also beneficited of the help from 12 Students with various backgrounds, preparing various degrees in Design, Engineering, Chemistry, Material Science or Electromechanics. A big thank to all of them !

First PhD defense : Anne-Clémence Corbin from ENSAIT

Last July, we had the pleasure to congratulate Anne-Clémence Corbin from ENSAIT  as the first PhD student to graduate in the frame of SSUCHY. We wish her lots of success in the next steps of her career and look forward to the next PhD defense.

Online Presence

In the past 12 month, SSUCHY’s online activities in and gradually expanded, both in quantity & quality ! We’ve reached 180 Followers on Linkedin and 250 Followers on Twitter

The project share is very happy with its “Success Stories” highlighting our SME & Industry contributions. So far Linificio, NPSP, EADCO and NOURYON were willing to share their experience. More articles to come by the end of the year !

We are glad that the community around the project is growing and reacting to our the information we share. Hopefully we will be able to rely on such great followers to ensure the best uptake of results in the last year of the project !