Multiscale Bioinspired Enhancement Of Natural-Fiber Composites For Green Vehicles

The global number of passenger vehicles is forecasted to rise from 1,102 million in 2017 to 1,980 million by 2040. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on petroleum-based solutions has been the focus of the United States Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technology Office. The use of lightweight fiber-reinforced composite materials is key to enable lower emission vehicles and promote the widespread adoption of long-range electric vehicles, offering a significant opportunity to achieve the decarbonization of transportation in America. However, conventional composites used in automotive, such as carbon fiber and glass fiber use petroleum-based, high embodied energy constituents which are difficult to recycle and dispose. Green composites making use of natural fibers and/or biopolymers have a low carbon footprint and outstanding end-of-life properties. However, green composites do not perform as well as their petroleum-based counterparts, hindering their wider adoption in high volume automotive structural components. In Phase I, we have developed and demonstrated, at coupon level, the performance of a new green composite material being more recyclable and having a lower carbon footprint to enable a wider use of green composites in high-volume structural applications. Through detailed experimental activities and numerical analysis we have devised a green 100% bio-based solution resulting in a composite capable of achieving superior specific flexural stiffness (+29%), flexural strength (+42%) and interlaminar strength (+92%) performance compared to a non-sustainable glass-fiber composite. These results pave the way to develop high-performance materials to drastically reduce CO2 emission production with more sustainable end of life options. In the Phase II project, we will initially optimize the configurations identified in Phase I to increase the performance improvement. Additionally, we will explore non-structural functionalities, such as improved thermal management and self-healing. Such multifunctionalities become increasingly important to deliver “smart” vehicles characterized by high system integration and lower manufacturing carbon footprint. Subsequently, we will integrate the optimized technology in a full-scale automotive component, targeting the underbody protection panel of an electric car. This is a key component to enable E-mobility as it protects the battery pack from impacts. Key partnerships with automotive and raw materials suppliers will allow to deliver a highly sustainable solution at low cost and scalable to high volume, targeting the production of more than 10,000 tons of the developed low carbon footprint green material by 2029. The innovation will have a wider impact to extensively enable the use of green composites in other high-performance applications in automotive as well as wind rotor blades and hydrogen pressure vessels.