Quality flax, made affordable

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BIOFIBIX makes high-performance natural-fibre composites affordable. Composites are lightweight materials used across vehicles, marine, sports and construction, but today rely on energy-intensive glass fibre. Flax is the natural alternative, yet it has remained a niche material: usable long flax fibres are scarce and expensive, and natural fibres take up too much resin and are sensitive to moisture. Our proprietary fibre treatment, developed over 8+ years at KU Leuven, solves this. It replaces the moisture-attracting polar groups on the fibre surface with an optimised polymer composition, without touching the reinforcing cellulose structure. This lets us work with lower-cost natural fibres, such as the short flax fibres from the secondary stream of flax production, which the composites industry has never been able to use effectively. Processed into non-wovens, they take up 20% less moisture and hold up to 50% fibre, where usual natural-fibre non-wovens stop at around 20%. The result, Hypermat®, delivers ~90% of premium long-flax performance at less than half the cost, and outperforms glass fibre on specific stiffness, vibration damping and weight (−25%). Climate relevance: 45% lower cradle-to-gate CO₂ than glass fibre, plus 1.65 kg of biogenic CO₂ stored per kg of fibre. Counting the lighter parts and the bio-based resins as well, every tonne of Hypermat adopted avoids ~8.6 t CO₂. If all the glass fibre used in our target sectors (~1.5 million tonnes a year) were replaced by Hypermat, that would come to ~12.9 Mt CO₂ saved per year. That is the size of the prize we are going after, comparable to the annual emissions of a city like Paris or Brussels.

El sector empresarial
Industry
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Fecha de presentación 26 de julio de 2026 Urbanización armand preud'hommestraat 14 Geel, Bélgica

El proyecto en detalle

Nota: este formulario debe ser cumplimentado en su totalidad por las personas que proponen la innovación.

¿Qué problema se ha resuelto?

Composites are built on glass fibre: a high-CO₂ material (~1.78 kg CO₂e/kg cradle-to-gate) consumed at ~1.5 million tonnes per year in our target sectors alone (transportation, marine and consumer goods). That is roughly 2.7 Mt CO₂e/year before use-phase effects. At end of life, glass fibre closes off the circular routes. Mechanical recycling only turns it into low-value filler, chemical recycling by pyrolysis or solvolysis is not market ready and the business case remains very hard, and in gasification the fibre melts into a slag that fouls the reactor. Landfill stays the default. The natural alternative, flax, has been stuck in a niche for 18 years. Natural fibres are already widely used in non-structural parts such as interior body trims, where mechanical demands are low. In demanding applications, however, their use is limited to some 300 t/year (~€10M). That is because premium long-flax fabrics cost €25–60/kg (vs €12–15/kg for Hypermat), and conventional natural-fibre products suffer from moisture sensitivity and low achievable fibre fractions (~20-35%). Meanwhile, vehicle makers face hard weight ceilings (450 kg for L7e city cars, 3.5 t for motorhomes on a standard licence) that heavy glass-fibre parts make harder to meet. Industry wants a sustainable, lightweight reinforcement, but not at ten times the price.

¿Cómo se resuelve?

BIOFIBIX combines three technical building blocks, developed over 8+ years at KU Leuven: 1. Cost-effective fibre selection. We avoid expensive aligned long-flax fibre and instead use a secondary stream of the flax plant with the same high intrinsic properties, multiplying the usable biomass at a fraction of the cost. 2. Efficient non-woven processing. Fibres come in bulk from the field and are converted in bulk, avoiding the costly doubling and stretching steps that make flax yarns and rovings a cost bottleneck. 3. Proprietary fibre treatment. The treatment replaces the polar groups on the fibre with an optimised polymer composition, improving fibre–matrix bonding without affecting the cellulose structure. This lifts fibre volume fraction from the typical ~20% to close to 50% and cuts moisture absorption by 20%, the two barriers that kept natural-fibre non-wovens out of structural use. The result is Hypermat®: a drop-in reinforcement processed on customers’ existing moulds and standard infusion equipment, delivering 25% lighter parts than glass fibre, 2–3× better vibration damping and a 45% lower carbon footprint. Supply is secured through co-founder Vanacker Rumbeke (1,000 t/yr of fibre); current capacity is 100 t/yr, on an asset-light setup that is ready for further scaling.

¿Quiénes son los clientes potenciales?

26 companies across automotive, motorhome, agriculture, marine and sport have put Hypermat through their own qualification programmes; 4 are now negotiating series supply, with first series parts expected in Q4 2026. The active funnel counts 44 qualified leads spread across laminate qualification, part and process qualification, series-production negotiations, distribution partnerships and consulting services, together representing a risk-adjusted pipeline in the high six figures over the next 18 months. First revenue is on the books, reached on a modest seed round, and non-dilutive grants have already been awarded. Illustrative cases: a European electric city-car OEM passed technical qualification (35% weight reduction enabled road approval) and is negotiating a pre-series order, with substantial long-term potential on its 5,000-car pre-order backlog; an established German maker of motorhome pop-up roofs starts its first flax series in 2027 with a long-term potential of some 30 t/yr; a Belgian agricultural-machinery OEM revealed a Hypermat prototype publicly and is discussing series production; a global sports retailer has introduced Hypermat in a surfboard series; and a Dutch public-infrastructure part passed its IK08 impact rating for highway deployment in summer 2026.

¿En qué se diferencia esta solución?

• Proprietary fibre-treatment technology (KU Leuven spin-off, 8+ years of research): the only natural-fibre non-woven reaching ~50% fibre content with 20% lower moisture uptake. • Cost position: 90% of premium long-flax performance at less than half the cost (€12–15/kg vs €25–60/kg), built on low-cost short fibres and efficient non-woven processing. • Performance vs the incumbent: 25% lighter than glass-fibre composites, higher specific stiffness, 2–3× better vibration damping, 45% lower cradle-to-gate CO₂. • Drop-in adoption: processed on existing moulds and standard infusion equipment, so no retooling is needed and customer qualification is shorter. • Controlled supply chain: co-founded with a third-generation Belgian flax processor (1,000 t/yr direct fibre access), guaranteeing quality consistency and price stability.