Fourth partnermeeting, Leuven Belgium
These two days we were guests at the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium.
The first day of our meeting was devoted to work package 5: WP 5 binds it all together. We have been working on how to bring stakeholders together and how do we find them. We talked about how can we make the chain: development that takes place in WP 3 will be brought into the world with the work we do in WP 5.
Morten Karnoe gave a presentation on the challenges that every project/start-up will face. He also focussed on the specific challenges for projects/start-up's in the bio-economy. In short the conclusions were: Start-ups/projects in the bio-economy are very difficult. The two major issues in bio-economy projects/start-ups are controlling the supply of the raw materials and timing.
Peter Lindgren gave a presentation on the importance of building clusters around a bio-economy project/start-up and the specific points which you should pay attention to when building a cluster. As an example he presented how the GreenLab Skive cluster was build.
Peter Lindgren, Morten Karnoe and Mette Jorgensen
After each presentation, we did some case exercises to practise with our new knowledge on the work packages within BIOCAS.
And they couldn’t stop; back at the hotel a small group worked on the biocups project.
In the evening we joined a good meal in the historical city center of Leuven.
The second morning we spend learning about biocomposites and bridge design and the project in Fryslân where a cycle bridge is build out of biocomposites.
In this BCA the province of Fryslân is working together with the Universities of Leuven and Gent.
Aart van Vuuren (Leuven University) introduced us to world of (bio)composites; the different commodities of which they can be made, specific properties (for instance: moisture sensitivity), barriers that one comes across (land use, supply chain). (bio)Composites are interesting, because they are making transport lighter, especially in in the use-phase, and also find a good use in construction, especially because producing materials takes a lot of energy.
Afterwards, Wouter de Corte explained about bridge designing and the various ways to produce the bridge parts. Barriers that bridge designers and builders encounter in the current Belgian market when they want to work with (bio)composites: the lack of normative documents, the government that is holding back, many tests that have to be performed first. Results from the Frisian bridge are therefore very interesting for getting more established and getting a feel for building with it.
Lastly, Geert Takke presented the progress in the project of the biocompsite bycicle bridg.
Most testing on the bridge is done by now, for instance bending tests on the moveable part. Lots of small specimens were tested, but also a large scale model. The project now comes to the next step: building the parts. Last step will be to put all the parts in place and build in the permanent monitoring tools.
The bridge will be ready at the end of this year. We’re looking forward to see the result!
In the lunch that followed we had time to discuss the interesting world of infrastructure and sustainability some more and then we said our goodbyes.
Our next partner meeting will be in the beginning of 2020 in Germany, but in the meantime, partners keep working together on the BCA’s!