Development of sustainable profile structures from renewable raw materials

The CannaPul project aims to advance the city of Chemnitz, which is undergoing structural change, through innovative technologies. This is being achieved by combining the expertise of two renowned research institutions, Fraunhofer IWU and the Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V. (STFI). The project aims to qualify the two technologies “hemp bast fiber tape development” and “pultrusion with bio-based materials” as an innovative, sustainable manufacturing route, thereby strengthening Chemnitz as a center of science and industry in the long term by enabling profile structures to be manufactured in the future from 100% renewable, regionally available raw materials.

The STFI will develop a novel process for hemp bast processing, focusing on the handling of peeled hemp bast segments and their processing into an endless, uniform, and as damage-free as possible roving or fibre tape. The aim is to prove that pultrusion-capable endless rovings can be produced from hemp bast segments. Fraunhofer IWU will use these continuous rovings and a bio-based thermoplastic (e.g., PA11, PLA) to develop the pultrusion process by means of melt impregnation and demonstrate its suitability for use in application-oriented profile demonstrators as load-bearing and sliding elements.

Fraunhofer IWU is focusing on several interdependent development steps with high commercialization potential:

• Development of melt pultrusion
• Processing of biologically based thermoplastics
• Pultrusion with natural fibers.

The manufactured demonstrators will be tested under operating conditions (TRL 5) during the course of the project in order to demonstrate their potential for subsequent industrial transfer.