LIST opens innovation center focusing on sustainable composite materials

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), supported by the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of the Economy, recently opened the Sustainable Composite Materials and Manufacturing Innovation Centre (SCMM). The SCMM’s main goal is to develop composite materials with a very low carbon footprint and to demonstrate their benefits using specific application demonstrators in the automotive, rail, space and aeronautics sectors, as well as in future urban air mobility (UAM).

As the innovation center’s activities will respond as closely as possible to the future needs of the transport market, SCMM will involve four major players in European transport, namely Toyota (automotive), Airbus (aeronautics), Thales Alenia Space (space) and Alstom (rail), which will share their visions regarding the technological needs of vehicles of the future.

“This innovation center is quite unique because it aims to tackle one of the weak spots of European industry — the rapid transition from research results to the real economy.”

LIST will then accelerate the use of bio-based and/or recyclable materials for ultra-lightweight functional parts, and develop industrial processes with a low carbon footprint. These technological building blocks will be integrated in the form of demonstrators developed and constructed with the involvement of composite material manufacturers, members of the SCMM. For example, this may concern vehicle bodywork or interior panels, structural vehicle components, battery cases or hydrogen tanks.

In order to work with SCMM, subcontractors from the automotive, aeronautics, rail or space groups will have to become a member by paying an annual fee. They will then have access to the results of all SCMM research projects and will be able to buy the industrial property developed. Several Luxembourg and European companies will join the SCMM.

This innovation program will initially last four years with a budget of more than €16 million, co-funded by LIST, the Ministry of Research and Higher Education, the Ministry of the Economy and members from industry. In particular, it will include an investment of €3 million from LIST for new industrial technologies to complement the composite platform provided by the institute’s Materials Department.

“The transport sector is experiencing and will continue to experience a remarkable transformation over the next 30 years: Electric cars, hydrogen-powered vehicles and aircraft, UAM and space transport of the future will all rely on ultra-lightweight, recyclable structural materials with a low carbon footprint,” Damien Lenoble, director of the Materials Research and Technology Department at LIST, says. “These are all criteria that make sustainable composite materials and their manufacturing processes one of the technological mainstays of this transformation. This innovation center is quite unique because it aims to tackle one of the weak spots of European industry — the rapid transition from research results to the real economy by bringing together OEMs, national and international players in the composite materials sector and LIST researchers.”