DECOAT, Meet the Partners: Centexbel

In February 2019, ISWA and a Consortium of partners launched a new H2020 project addressing the recycling of coated and painted textile plastic materials – DeCOAT. Over the course of the next few newsletters, we will be showcasing the different project partners within the consortium. First up, it’s the project lead, CENTEXBEL. Guy Buyle, who leads the EU research at CENTEXBEL introduces the project.

CENTEXBEL is the Belgian scientific and technical centre for the textile and plastic converting industry. The focus of Centexbel is on applied research and innovation, meaning that we assist companies in research and innovation. Our work is typically funded by private contract or by regional, national or European agencies. The focus of our activities is on sustainability: biobased materials, recycling, energy & resource efficiency. With our activities, we cover the following domains: (i) finishing and coating technology; (ii) extrusion processes and related

polymer formulation (incl. biopolymers); (iii) smart textiles; (iv) plastics.

Further, we offer a complete range of standardized testing, are a notified body and can deliver CE marking and testing. CENTEXBEL is also involved in standardization committees and offers technological advice and training to companies in Belgium and abroad.

We, at CENTEXBEL, believe that Europe has a fascinating textile and plastic processing industry and we are proud to be part of it. We care for our industry and firmly believe that by building and sharing knowledge and know-how and by engaging in close and deep collaborations we can contribute to a sustainable future for our companies.

CENTEXBEL is the coordinator of the DECOAT project, as such we will be involved in several aspects linked to the DECOAT implementation, including exploitation and communication to the wider public. From technical point of view, our main task is the coating on textiles – we are also leader of the work package related to the development of debondable coatings and their characterisation.

At CENTEXBEL we are convinced of sustainable, circular use of raw materials for the plastics and textiles industry. One of the many challenges is recycling of coated items. That is why we initiated DECOAT together with some core partners with the goal to develop novel solutions that will enable the recycling of coated plastics and textiles. At the end of this Research and Innovation Action, we hope to have solutions that are suitable for pick up by the European textiles and plastics industry.

Centexbel is the project coordinator of DECOAT, the Work Package (WP)-leader in WP2 and a partner in the following ongoing work packages: WP1, WP6, WP7 and WP8. The technical contribution of Centexbel is focused on the coating process in the textile end-use case.

In WP1, information about the specifications and requirements according to the demonstrator needs was gathered (D1.1), in which the basic functional requirements of the different commercially available end-products and the most important process parameters are highlighted. This will serve as a guideline throughout the project as all debondable demonstrators should still comply with the requested functional properties. Additionally, technical information about the debonding additives was gathered. This allows the matching of the different coating systems and production processes with the most appropriate additive.

In WP2, the goal is to incorporate the debonding triggers developed within WP1 into coating layers. Afterwards, the separation capacity of the different triggers and the functional performance of the obtained coatings will be investigated. After integration of the triggers into different coating formulations for both textile and plastic substrates, their influence on the physico-chemical and mechanical properties of both the coating formulation and the coating itself will be investigated. Centexbel has started with selecting a few different textile binders that can be used for an initial screening of the trigger compatibility. A standard textile substrate has been coated with these binders and will be subjected to the Creasolv process. Finally, initial tests of incorporating produced additives in coating formulations and applying these coating formulations to textile substrates have started.