Composite Materials: Engineering the Matrix
Contents
Introduction
A Lighter, Stronger Future
Market forces
The drive to cut carbon
Segments
Green Composites
Market movers
Leaders & fast followers
Investors
VC / PE / Funds
Composites Bringing a Lighter, Stronger Future
Making them in a sustainable manner remains challenging
Bathtubs, window frames, concrete, plywood, reinforced plastics, and carbon fiber have at least one thing in common. They’re all made with composite materials.
Strong, durable and — relative to load-bearing capacity — light are what characterize composite materials. This results from the fusion of base materials, often which carry divergent physical and chemical properties, creating an enhanced, layered matrix that may also be flexible or conductive, among other traits.
Humans have been mixing ingredients to create stronger materials for millennia — we all know how thousands of years ago the Egyptians added straw to mud to create a stronger brick. Looking to the future, composites will be along for the ride to new planets due to their strength and light weight.
While composites undergird our modern culture, they’re also raising alarms. Cheap, disposable packaging and household goods are made using dirty processes, and once thrown out, might break into microplastics that threaten the health of species and the planet’s natural systems.
Not all composites are inherently harmful. Many are natural, like wood composites made from cellulose fibers and lignin matrix.
Composite materials can also be synthetic, such as concrete made from cement, water, and additives. Common composites include fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), and glass reinforced polymer fibers (GFRP).
Accelerated by supply chains being disrupted by the pandemic, an eco-friendly revolution in composite materials may arrive sooner than anticipated. Scientists, engineers, and manufacturers had already seen an uptick in research into bio-based, environmentally-friendly alternatives to synthetic composites. But now coupled with increased metal prices and reduced availability, the shift away from traditional composites led researchers to think outside the box, and into newer, sustainable composites.
“The transition to sustainable composites, as promising as it sounds, faces challenges. Just because a composite contains a natural component, it doesn’t automatically qualify as green or eco-friendly, contend researchers”
Natural fiber composites, for instance, possess mechanical properties, low density, and environmental benefits that industries may demand in the future. “The persistence in the environment of these biocomposites is significantly shorter compared to those that are entirely composed of oil-based materials,” authors of a 2021 study wrote.
Composites can solve many of manufacturing’s environmental concerns. Due to their lightweight nature, composites can reduce greenhouse gasses in transportation, making these materials a priority in helping companies and industry sectors seeking to reach net zero emissions.
The transition to sustainable composites, as promising as it sounds, faces challenges. Just because a composite contains a natural component, it doesn’t automatically qualify as green or eco-friendly, contend researchers from La Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain.
Some classes of composites require more energy during their production than traditional material like steel and aluminum, and recycling composites is far more complex than sorting into papers, plastics, and metals. Current recycling techniques often degrade the material’s performance, reducing value and future application.
As a result, only 15% of composites get reused or recycled, meaning investment in efficient, scalable recycling and circularity infrastructure are key to the industry’s future.
Market Trends: The Drive to Cut Carbon
Facts, figures, forces
Market Forces
Driving decarbonization to reach net zero emissions is a key priority for industry sectors and governments, and composite materials can play a significant part in achieving this through:
Light-weighting to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions
Manufacturing higher performance products
Increasing product lifespans by decades through corrosion resistance and durability.
Eco-composites are a newly emerging class of biocomposites made by mixing recycled plastics and cellulose waste, according to a 2021 study.
While the U.S. dominates the world’s green materials market, European governments are catching up by introducing new regulations and incentives to facilitate the incorporation of new eco-friendly materials.
Market Facts & Figures
The global market size for natural-fiber composite materials was valued at $4.46 billion in 2016 was projected to grow about 11% a year through 2021, according to “Green composites and their contribution toward sustainability.” Wood dominated the market (60%), followed by flax (13%).
The world fiber market will reach approximately $11 billion by 2024, according to the paper.
Fibers such as hemp, flax and kenaf are increasingly employed in the production of lightweight and fuel-efficient cars. Car manufacturers using these materials include Audi, BMS, Fiat, SEAT and Volkswagen among others.
Investment Opportunities
Demand continues to grow as composites become more economical, durable, sustainable and lighter weight than traditional materials. The potential for these materials has untapped potential and further investments will likely result in the discovery of more applications.
In industry, natural fibers have found place in automobiles; however, aviation has yet to apply flax and ramie, possible alternatives for GFRP, due to their limited mechanical properties. Construction uses a high volume of natural fiber reinforced composites – for their lower cost, reduced environmental harm, and improved mechanical properties including impact resistance and fracture toughness compared to glass fibers.
Market Segments: Green Composites
Demand for composites continues to rise, and the market for those made from natural fiber may reach $10.9 by 2024, according to a study. those made from natural fibers in 2021 in fell into the following categories according to a different study found:
Construction (60%)
Automotive (20%)
Electronics (10%)
Sporting goods (7%)
Others (3%)
“The persistence in the environment of these biocomposites is significantly shorter compared to those that are entirely composed of oil-based materials”
Study led by Edgar Vázquez-Núñez, Guanajuato University, Mexico
Composite Materials' Impact
Lightweight composites may be one way manufacturers will meet more restrictive fuel consumption rules.
Airplane manufacturers are looking at composites as they seek to cut fuel usage, as airline travel is among the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases.
Lightweight aircraft, such as the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350, utilize 20% less fuel and generate 20% fewer emissions when compared to aircraft of similar sizes
Composite infrastructure allows for larger batteries in electric vehicles. Adding 1.8kg of battery mass is roughly equal to 1 mile of electric vehicle range.
More than 5 billion gallons of fuel could be saved annually in the U.S. by 2030 if one-quarter of vehicles used lightweight components and high-efficiency engines enabled by advanced materials, the U.S. Energy Department says.
Market Movers: Current and Future Heavy Hitters
Market Movers:
In the Automotive sectors there are several key players innovating and using natural fiber composites to improve fuel efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and increase vehicle component recyclability or biodegradability.
BMW Group - BMW Group Research and Bcomp are setting up a development alliance with the aim of using a higher proportion of renewable raw materials for components in future vehicle models. BMW7 series cars already use 24 kg of flax and sisal fiber composites.
Audi Group, Ford, Volkswagen and Mercedes - use natural fiber composites in door panels, seatback, boot lid finish panel and seats
Future Heavy Hitters
Arevo (US) - manufacturing carbon fiber to scale for customers for wide applications, from bicycle frames to lighter airplane seat brackets. In May 2018 Series B funding, Arevo raised $12.5 million, led by the Association of General Contractors. In June 2020, Arevo announced that they had begun construction on what will be one of the world’s largest carbon fiber reinforced polymer manufacturing plants
Woodoo (France) - developed a wood that replaces the lignin parts of wood with custom polymer, strengthening the wood to a similar strength profile as metal. In effect, Woodoo shares a low-cost profile as traditional wood, but with three times the strength. In addition, Woodoo is touch compatible so that technology can be embedded into its surface. This use of augmented reality could become popular in car dashboards as is envisioned by Woodoo’s founder. In 2019 Woodoo received €3.2 million from the EU in grants.
Mantis Composites (US) - manufactures carbon fiber that has a wide use of applications from aerospace to cars. Through a manufacturing process of 3D printing their molds in a five axis printer, they are able to make sturdier composites at a lower cost.
AEON-T Composite Technologies (Spain) - manufacture low-carbon composite parts quickly. Their construction process saves both time and energy, resulting in a 30%-part reduction cost.
Lavoisier Composites (France) - developed a material named Carbonium. It reduces the carbon footprint of similar materials by 13 kg per kg used. It is 3 times stiffer than titanium while being 2 times less its weight by mass.
UBQ Materials (Israel) - able to infinitely recycle their thermoplastic material. For every ton of UBQ material that is used, up to 15 tons of carbon dioxide emission is eliminated. They have been independently identified as the most climate positive material on the market.
Arris Composites (US) - able to mass-produce renewable composites through a patented Additive Molding process, through which they can manufacture their composites at the same speed as plastic molds. In May 2020 Arris received $48.5 million in Series B funding to accelerate their mass-production process.
Vistex Composites (US) - manufactures thermoplastic composites. Their production process specializes in the ability to apply uniform temperature and pressure throughout the molding process.
ELG Carbon Fibre Ltd (UK) - are pioneers in the recycling of carbon fiber composites
Mighty Buildings (US) - a start-up using 3D printing tech and composite materials to disrupt the construction industry
Boston Materials (US) - makes Carbon Supercomposites — a cutting-edge technology that demonstrates 3x toughness enhancement compared to other materials.
Airbus’s construction of the composites-intensive European Service Module for NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I and II moon missions.
Venture Capital/PE and Other Fund Investors
New Enterprise Associates (NEA): NEA is a global venture capital firm with more than over $20 billion in assets under management (AUM). The firm has a wide range of investments in such companies as 23andMe, Buzzfeed, and Uber. NEA led a $10 million series A funding with Arris Composites, which mass produces renewable composite materials with great speed.
Khosla Ventures: Khosla is an early stage venture capital firm with about $5 billion in AUM. In 2009, Khosla completed fundraising for a cleantech start-up fund. Arevo and Mighty Buildings — a start-up using 3D printing tech and composite materials to disrupt the construction industry — are in Khosla’s portfolio.
Valo Ventures: Started by Google co-founder Scott Tierney, Valo Ventures invests in companies tackling issues such as climate change and urbanization. Valo also has Arris Composites in its portfolio.
Clean Energy Ventures: Clean Energy Ventures provides seed-stage funding to disruptive energy and business model innovations.
Final Thoughts
Sustainable composites have a promising future, with the construction, automotive and aerospace sectors driving new developments. This will enable price reductions as processes are refined and enable technologies to filter down to other industries.
Within the composite industry, sustainable composites represent an alternative substitution for oil-based ones, which make composites difficult to recycle. Several studies demonstrate that these materials have the mechanical properties appropriate for strict industry sectors, such as construction, at the same time as providing cost reduction and increasing environmental performance.
Some of the challenges that sustainable composite presents include:
Limited recycling methods
Recyclate with lower properties
Landfill disposal
Low adoption of alternative feedstock