Natural fiber composite activities highlighted through comprehensive database, event displays

The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp (Paris, France) is continuing the expansion of its partnership with JEC Group (Paris) by hosting a Natural Fibre Village at JEC World 2024 that will showcase the activities of the Alliance and 10 of its members. The enlarged 250-square-meter area on the show floor will be dedicated to natural fiber composites.

Longstanding Alliance member Libeco join for the first time, providing 2D woven flax reinforcements for the composite sector, while CultureIn and Texinov Tech, both new to JEC in 2023, have also signed up again for 2024. In addition, long-term members Bcomp, Demgy, Depestele, EcoTechnilin, Flipts & Dobbels, Safilin and Terre de Lin will exhibit a wide range of flax raw materials and composite products aimed at the automotive, aerospace, marine, sporting goods, design and lifestyle markets. Located at the JEC Mobility planets, Depestele, in partnership with Greenboats, will also display the natural fiber composite Greenlander van structure that has been nominated as a finalist in the 2024 JEC Innovation Awards.

The Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp will also present its latest scientific work package, adding reliable environmental impact data for European flax fibers to version 3.10 of the ecoinvent materials database. The Alliance contends that this is the first time long and short European flax fiber data — representing three-fourths of global production — has been included in the ecoinvent database, enabling flax users, industrial companies and brands to move forwards with truly representative and reliable data.

Furthermore, as part of the JEC Composite Exchange, Dr. Gilles Koolen, postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven and expert of the European Scientific Council of Alliance for European Flax-Linen & Hemp, alongside Alliance’s Marie Demaegdt, sustainable director, and Julie Pariset, innovation and CSR director, will present a session titled “Flax and hemp: The natural fibers for composite solutions within the industry.” The conference will highlight recent developments of flax-linen and hemp as advanced materials for the composites industry, and will provide an update on the environmental trajectory for European flax-linen, focusing on fiber and processing data co-construction, availability and granularity. The session will take place on May 5 at 4 p.m. on the Agora Stage in Hall 5.