LIFE Comp0live incorporates olive pruning fibers into plastics to develop components for automobiles for the Ford company

They have also been used, within the framework of the European LIFE Comp0live project, in which Citoliva participates, to develop biomaterials for urban and domestic furniture.

After four years of work, the European LIFE Comp0live project, which has managed to give a second life to olive pruning waste, serving as plastic reinforcement for new biomaterials in the automotive and sector furniture, has made its results public in a conference that has brought together more than 20 Andalusian cooperatives today in Jaén and which has had the collaboration of Grupo Interóleo.

Researchers from the University of Jaén and the Andaltec Plastic Technology Center, leader of the project, have presented real prototyped pieces, manufactured from a selection of fibers from olive pruning in terms of size and specific characteristics to be mixed with polymeric matrices (plastic), which will be used to manufacture automobile components such as the footrest and the boot trim for the Focus and Mondeo models, respectively, by the German company Ford-Werke GmbH, a partner in the project.

Precisely, Ford will be in charge of presenting next Wednesday at Expoliva, at the stand of the University of Jaén in the morning and in the afternoon at the Symposium, these parts that have been manufactured using injection molding technology. Likewise, the company Matricería Peña, also a LIFE Comp0live partner, will present street furniture made from these biomaterials using extrusion profiles. At the same time, both companies will give details of the technical feasibility of the project’s innovation and will comment on how advanced the technology based on the Circular Economy is in the olive grove.

As a result, the project, which is entering its home stretch, will help generate benefits for the environment. On the one hand, it prevents the burning of waste and CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere, and, on the other hand, it allows replacing fossil materials with biomaterials in the manufacture of composites for industrial uses. And all this with the aim of supporting the policies and directives put in place by the European Union to implement the Circular Economy, which seeks to reduce the production of waste and use it as resources. In turn, it opens up a new source of income for the farmer.

The LIFE Comp0live project consortium, which has funding of almost €2M from the European Union, is also made up of the French companies Caliplast and Plasturgia, which are working to incorporate the new biocomposite into domestic furniture.

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