Comparative impact assessment for flax fibre versus conventional glass fibre reinforced composites: Are bio-based reinforcement materials the way to go?

In many applications the use of composite materials can offer significant weight reduction opportunities, which can have a positive influence on the life cycle impact of a component or system primarily through energy saving effects in the use phase. The impact associated with the production and end-of-life (EOL) phases, however, forms a possible counter indication for systematic replacement of conventional structures by composite solutions. Bio-composites are considered a promising strategy to limit production and EOL impact. In this paper a comparative LCA study is presented for flax fibre reinforced composites based on PP on the one hand, and functionally equivalent glass fibre reinforced PP composites on the other. The analysis results and conclusions derived from a comparative attributional LCA study are summarised in this paper. (C) 2014 CIRP.