Applications sustainability Environment-friendly materials for composite production - Environment-friendly materials for composite production ...................... p16 -A unique hand-held ballistic shield ............ p20 - Polyurethane in the BMW i3 and reactive polyamide materials development . p22 2012 F Factors such as the growing environmental conscience, legislative pressures, depletion of synthetic polymers and rising costs are leading companies to explore new materials for the development of products traditionally made from petroleum-based resins reinforced with fibres such as glass, carbon or aramid. This way, composite companies have developed different products based on more environment-friendly raw materials. ollowing this line of work, the AIMPLAS plastics technology centre in Valencia, Spain, has contributed since 2006 to the development of biocomposites for different application sectors, including the transport industry. Raw materials Biocomposites are often defined as materials where at least one component can be considered as bio-based . Fig. 1 shows the chemical structure of several bio-based and petroleum-based polymers that can be used in the production of biocomposites. NOVEMBER 17. 18. 1 9 . 20l4 JEC - 25 bd de l'Amiral Bruix -75116 Paris - France www.jeccomposites.com By Sergio Fita CompoSiteS Department aimplaS (plaStiCS teChnology Centre) 16 jec composites magazine / No92 October - November 2014 Fig. 1: Structure of several polymers used for the production of biocomposites: starch (first); polyhydroxybutyrate (second); epoxidized soybean oil (third); polypropylene (fourth)http://www.jeccomposites.com