In view of moving towards a post-petroleum society, the communication of the European Commission on 13 February 2012 entitled "Innovating for Sustainable Growth: A Bioeconomy for Europe", and in particular its Action Plan, aims to integrate better biomass producing and processing sectors in order to reconcile food security, natural resource scarcity and environmental objectives with the use of biomass for industrial and energy purposes. Among others, construction and automotive industries have high potential for effective implementation of the strategy of European Bioeconomy in terms of more efficient use of biomass and industrial by products for development of bio-based value added products. Reinvent project will answer these needs by developing and combining bio based materials and fibres for replacing the petroleum based polyurethane (PUR) insulation products used in buildings and soft foams for vehicles interior products. Polyols, natural cellulose fibres and nanocrystals, and biomass derived nanoparticles (NPs) will be derived by advanced technologies from sustainable wood-based and agro-based sources to develop and validate: i) Novel bio based rigid moulded and spraying insulation foam systems for the construction industry, e.g. composite bridge decks, spraying building insulations and insulating sandwich structures, and ii) Novel bio based soft and semi-rigid foams for the automotive industry, e.g. sub-layers for car ceilings, dashboards and seat covers. These customer products will be validated for their enhanced properties, sustainability and low cost, and compared to currently available petroleum- and bio-based counterparts used in the construction and automotive industries, respectively. To enhance the sustainability of these products and materials, new energy and cost-efficient recycling technologies for the bio-based products will be developed.

There are currently 1.3 million Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles on Europe’s roads, expected to rise to 15 million by 2030. Customers such as Audi, Daimler and Volvo have set a target 10% weight and cost reduction for CNG tanks, to increase efficiency and reduce vehicle cost. Most CNG tanks are made from a metal or polymer liner, over-wound with a carbon/epoxy composite, but: • Wet-winding of carbon/epoxy is slow, so limits cost-effective production • Their properties vary by up to 10%, so excess material is used to compensate To meet the customer targets, Plastic Omnium has developed a new process for the fast, efficient production of CNG tanks, using 8-axis robotic tape placement cell from MF Tech, and high quality carbon/polyamide tape developed by Coventive Composites. Together, these technologies can reduce CNG tank weight by 10% and cost by 20%. The technologies are currently at TRL 6, and the objective is to overcome the 3 remaining barriers to demonstration at TRL 7/8: 1. Materials: Optimise and upscale the carbon/polyamide tapes to meet cost, accuracy and property needs 2. Process: Enhance the vessel-winding process to meet performance, weight and quality requirements 3. Product: Upscale the manufacture of carbon/polyamide CNG tanks, to enable economic production Overcoming these barriers will trigger our customers to start certification of the carbon/polyamide CNG tanks, as the next step in our commercialisation plan. The USP is that no other CNG tanks can offer the required weight and cost savings. Our customers have a requirement of 150,000 tanks per annum, and Plastic Omnium forecasts sales of 20,000 tanks (€11.7m) by 2025/26. MF Tech will supply robotic placement cells worth €2.1m, and Coventive Composites will supply tapes worth €6.2m. This proposal fits the FTI work programme, as it takes the tape manufacture and winding technologies from TRL6, and addresses the last steps needed to reach commercialisation and sales within 1 year.