Centexbel
The Belgian technical and scientific centre for the textile and plastic processing industry, CENTEXBEL, wants to encourage the competitiveness of the Belgian textile companies and plastic processing companies by encouraging and supporting innovation.
As one of the largest European research centres, CENTEXBEL performs five activities that reinforce each other: applied research development, testing and certification, knowledge dissemination & and standardisation.
The accredited laboratories of CENTEXBEL (BELAC ISO/IEC 17025) perform a full range of textile tests. With its semi-industrial pilot lines for product and process development, CENTEXBEL assists companies in their search for new, original, and successful niche products and/or applications of new technologies.
The Materials and Transformations Unit (UMR) was set up on 1 January 2010 on the basis of four former laboratories in Lille. It now groups much of the materials science activities at the University of Lille's science campus. The unit consists of about 80 lecturer-researchers and CNRS researchers, about 40 administrative and research support staff, about 60 PhD students and about 15 contract researchers and emeritus professors.
Most aspects related to materials are developed within the different teams: development/synthesis/functionalisation, studies of deformations and transformations under different stresses, characterisation of structures/microstructures and study of the relationships between microstructures and properties in relation to conditions of use.
VITO's Sustainable Polymer Technologies Team (SPOT) specialises in developing sustainable process and polymer technologies, including solvolysis, catalytic depolymerisation and chemical modification, to convert biomass and plastic waste into advanced sustainable materials. Since 2013, VITO has focused on lignin as a source of bio-aromatics, using a network of lignin suppliers, advanced characterisation techniques and an innovative continuous process to produce lignin oil. The SPOT Group has both a small pilot plant (TRL 4/5) and a large pilot plant (LignoValue XL, TRL 6/7) to produce bio aromatics from lignin.
VITO's role in the CIRCOPLAST project includes the production of bio aromatics for use as polyols and is responsible for the development and production of sustainable flame-retardant additives from bio aromatics. In addition, VITO will support the consortium in scaling up supercritical CO2 extraction using existing pilot plants.
The Materials and Transformations Unit (UMR) was set up on 1 January 2010 on the basis of four former laboratories in Lille. It now groups much of the materials science activities at the University of Lille's science campus. The unit consists of about 80 lecturer-researchers and CNRS researchers, about 40 administrative and research support staff, about 60 PhD students and about 15 contract researchers and emeritus professors.
Most aspects related to materials are developed within the different teams: development/synthesis/functionalisation, studies of deformations and transformations under different stresses, characterisation of structures/microstructures and study of the relationships between microstructures and properties in relation to conditions of use.
Materia Nova is a technological accelerator of responsible innovation, actively contributing to the development of solutions to meet the challenges facing society, particularly those linked to the energy transition and the deployment of the circular economy. It specialises in advanced materials, multifunctional surfaces and processes with a reduced environmental footprint.
Materia Nova's approach is based on open, collaborative innovation built around five interconnected services: custom product development, engineering and industrialisation, analysis and characterisation, life cycle thinking and project set-up and management.
Active in a wide range of sectors, Materia Nova focuses its efforts on themes aligned with the Walloon Region's ‘intelligent’ strategy (the S3), the European Green Pact and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals: decarbonisation, circularity, waste reduction, reduced toxicity, health protection, ....
Steven De Meester is professor since 2016 and head of the Laboratory for Circular Process Technology (LCPE), Department of Green Chemistry and Technology of the Faculty of Bioengineering at Ghent University. He is leader of the CAPTURE pipeline Plastics to Resource and is an advisor to the European Commission (DG JRC) on determining the quality of recycling and future plastic waste management policies. His current teaching duties include several courses such as solid waste management, chemical technology, sustainability assessment & process intensification. Prof De Meester coordinates the LCPE, a team of some 22 PhD students, 4 postdocs and 4 technicians focusing on better chemical engineering in the circular economy, with a focus on pre-treatment and downstream processing. This is important as it is clear that waste is heterogeneous and mechanical and chemical recycling technologies are often very sensitive to contaminants. The group brings fundamental science to the processes used in waste treatment plants, but also brings in more innovative approaches, such as physical-chemical property modelling, kinetic modelling and predicting mass and energy balances from separation processes and beyond, to full material flow analysis of a recycling chain. This approach was rewarded when his PhD student Sibel Ügdüler, working on the Interreg Fr.W.VL. project PSYC HE, won the prestigious EOS Pipet prize in the field of plastic recycling in 2022. It also led to the preparation of several patent applications in the field of pre-treatment of heterogeneous waste towards high-quality recycling, including in the field of delamination and de-inking. Prof De Meester's team is also currently building a pilot plant for chemical washing (and dissolution) of plastic waste, funded by the Moonshot LSI Clarify.
CREPIM is a European laboratory for the development and validation of materials related to fire safety. For more than 20 years, CREPIM's activity has focused on materials and their behaviour in a fire. CREPIM's experience, expert in the chemistry of fire-resistant materials and the testing of reaction and resistance properties in case of fire, will prove useful.
In addition to its R&D capabilities, CREPIM is a COFRAC-accredited laboratory under programmes 77-1, 77-2 and 77-3. Test certificates issued by CREPIM have European and international recognition. This will be a strength of the project and strengthen the legitimacy of the results obtained.
Moreover, CREPIM has a recognised and established partnership with the competitive clusters of the Nord Pas de Calais Picardie region, such as I-TRANS, UP-TEX, MATIKEM, TEAM² and IAR.
These close links are reflected in various actions such as the support and labelling of cooperation projects in which CREPIM participates, but also through participation in conferences, information or technical days organised by the clusters. This existing dynamic between CREPIM and the competitiveness clusters can only be beneficial to the project in terms of establishing relations with SMEs in the area and all the communication actions that will be undertaken.
