The Cervera Agromatter project has managed to process: small parts for the automotive sector, mulch film for agricultural use, polyurethane and resin plates with sustainable nonwovens from agricultural and forestry waste. This project of excellence, which has been financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation through CDTI, has been carried out by five technology centres: AITEX, ANDALTEC, CTAEX, CTNC and ITENE, and has successfully developed products with applications in multiple industries related to sectors ranging from food and textiles to cosmetics, automotive, plastics and packaging.
Andaltec has focused on the valorisation of agricultural waste and its by-products, such as olive pits, wheat straw, river cane, rice husks, lemon fibres and wine residues, in order to create new materials with a low environmental impact, easy to recycle and with a perfectly defined life cycle.
Andaltec researchers have developed demonstrators with different processing technologies, such as automotive components, a sector where manufacturers are demanding injection-moulded components that are both sustainable and able to meet stringent quality standards. On the other hand, several mulch films have been successfully developed, which are used as a base for outdoor soil cultivation and are produced by extrusion blow moulding using waste lemon fibres and wine residues.
The project has also developed other applications suitable for use in the automotive sector, such as the development of a polyurethane copolymer with lignin, or the manufacture of resin sheets with ‘nonwovens’ obtained by infusion. In short, materials that can be produced with other recycled materials and that can be recycled after use.
