Project leader
Centexbel is the Belgian technical and scientific expertise centre for the textile industry, focusing on three core activities: applied research, testing, and services. As a member-based organisation, it collaborates closely with around 600 companies, and its research is driven by concrete industrial needs. Since the acquisition of VKC in 2014, Centexbel also serves the plastics processing sector. Sustainability and circularity are key priorities, particularly in projects related to recycling.
The centre has an extensive platform for prototype development and modern laboratories for chemical, physical, microbiological, and polymer characterisation. In addition, it houses numerous industrial and semi‑industrial machines for compounding, injection moulding, thermoforming, coating, and filament and film extrusion. This infrastructure is used within an open‑innovation strategy in close cooperation with companies.
Within the project, Centexbel is responsible for project management and the work package on mechanical recycling of TPE. This includes sorting, reprocessing, and compounding plastic waste streams, analysing process parameters and pelletising techniques, and characterising the produced pellets. These are then tested in various processing technologies to determine which additives are required to achieve performance levels comparable to commercially available TPE.
Finally, Centexbel manages the dissemination activities, including workshops, a kick‑off and final event, a project website, newsletters, and communication via social media.
Partners
Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne
The University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA) is a multidisciplinary teaching and research institution with a strong national and international reputation in the field of the bioeconomy. With more than 27,500 students, the university offers programmes that closely match societal needs and are supported by high‑level, innovative research. URCA possesses extensive expertise in material processing and material characterisation, supported by advanced equipment for producing polymers, filaments, and architectural structures through additive manufacturing techniques such as Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) and Pellet Additive Manufacturing (PAM).
The university has strong capabilities in analysing thermal, mechanical, rheological, and structural properties of both raw materials and finished products. URCA also has in‑depth knowledge of the mechanical recycling of polymer materials, including grinding and reprocessing of residual material streams into new filaments or pellets.
Within the project, URCA takes on an active scientific role, focusing on the additive manufacturing of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE), extensive material characterisation, and mechanical recycling. In addition, the university contributes to project monitoring and to the communication activities, ensuring that progress and results are clearly shared with all stakeholders.
Certech
Certech is a recognized Walloon research center that supports companies in the chemical sector as an R&D partner, with expertise in environmental aspects, plastics, and related processes. The organization focuses on providing innovative solutions to improve products and production processes, with particular attention to sustainable chemistry and the circular economy, thereby addressing industrial and societal needs. Certech is highly active in recycling, through both public and private projects, with the goal of fostering new industrial and economic valorisation.
Certech’s expertise covers mechanical recycling techniques (such as compounding), physical processes (solutions and solvolysis) and chemical routes (including depolymerisation and pyrolysis), as well as the purification of recycled materials. The institute builds on knowledge gained in previous Interreg projects such as Recy‑Polymer and Recy‑Composite, which focused on the development and valorisation of recycled polymer materials. Its laboratory and pilot‑scale facilities are made available within the cross‑border Elast2Sustain project.
Within this project, Certech concentrates on the chemical recycling of thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). Key activities include the pyrolysis of TPEs and their conversion into liquid or gaseous products containing relevant synthons for the production of new TPEs by partners in the Elast2Sustain project. Certech also performs the characterisation of these liquids using gas chromatography (GC).
université de Lille
The University of Lille is one of the largest universities in France, with nearly 8,000 staff members and 80,000 students. In collaboration with other universities, national research centres, the University Hospital of Lille, and the Pasteur Institute of Lille, the university develops high‑quality research and promotes technological and service innovations. This is achieved through major scientific projects, advanced technological infrastructure, and strong partnerships with socio‑economic and cultural stakeholders.
Excellence lies at the heart of its strategy. The university strengthens the continuum between disciplinary and interdisciplinary research activities, always in relation to major societal challenges. It also strongly promotes collaborative research with companies and societal organisations. The University of Lille operates within an international research framework, with a particular focus on Northwestern Europe and numerous global partners.
As a multidisciplinary university, it hosts research projects supported by laboratories and facilities of exceptionally high quality. It also stimulates the emergence of new research themes to enable future discoveries and innovations.
Within the project, ULille will be responsible for the work package on the design of sustainable thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). This includes both the coordination of activities and the design, experimental development, and characterisation of new sustainable TPEs based on bio‑based monomers and recycled plastics, with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint and valorising these materials.
KU Leuven is a broad research university with more than 65,000 students and will celebrate its 600th anniversary in 2025. According to the Times Higher Education ranking, the university belongs to the top 50 worldwide. Within the Faculty of Engineering Science, the Sustainable Materials Lab conducts most of its activities at the KU Leuven KULAK campus in Kortrijk. The research group specializes in developing (nano)materials based on renewable raw materials, interpreting renewability broadly, including the recycling of both bio‑based and petroleum‑based materials.
The lab has strong expertise in the chemical modification of renewable products, their use in polymers, and the characterization of interactions between these materials. In a previous Interreg project (Elastoplast), the lab successfully developed a first thermoplastic elastomer based on renewable feedstocks, in collaboration with the University of Lille.
The lab also has extensive experience in chemical recycling through depolymerization of condensation polymers, recovering monomers that can be reused to produce new virgin‑like polymers. It is fully equipped with advanced chemical and physical characterization instruments.
In the current project, the lab focuses on two main tasks: the chemical depolymerization of existing TPEs, and the chemical modification of natural and purified products from the Certech pyrolysis stream, followed by polymerization. The goal is to develop a fully circular model for sustainable thermoplastic elastomers, in close collaboration with Certech and ULille.
EuraMaterials supports companies and research institutions in creating, developing, and improving materials and their transformation processes, enabling them to meet customer expectations, regulatory requirements, and sector‑specific challenges. The organisation is backed by public partners such as the European Union, the French government, the Hauts‑de‑France Region, the Lille European Metropolis, and the Pays de Saint‑Omer.
EuraMaterials is the reference cluster for the materials‑processing industry in Hauts‑de‑France. It acts simultaneously as a national competitiveness cluster, a regional innovation park, and a site of excellence of the Lille European Metropolis, incorporating an incubator‑accelerator. The cluster connects ecosystems of companies, research centres, and institutions, raises awareness on new markets and technologies, and supports innovation projects, both collective and individual. It also promotes regional expertise internationally and assists companies in addressing challenges linked to the circular economy, resource management, decarbonisation, and the digital transition.
EuraMaterials collaborates with international partners and participates in European projects, especially in textile recycling, new packaging, medical applications, and bio‑based materials. Together with CLUBTEX, it brings together over 170 members across the textile value chain. In this project, EuraMaterials will mobilise its network, assist with event organisation, deliver workshops, and support communication and dissemination activities, including publishing project updates and contributing to content creation.
