PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Tarpaulins are large sheets of strong, flexible and water-resistant material used as protection from extreme conditions such as wind, rain and sunlight. The main component is polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coated polyester, which is cost-effective and provides good resistance. However, PVC poses a significant environmental and human health burden.
Most key components used in the manufacturing of PVC are recognised for their toxicity. In April 2022, the European Union (EU) published the Restrictions Roadmap, or ‘The Great Detox,’ for the broad and rapid phasing-out of some of the most problematic substances still found in almost all manufactured products on the European market, including PVC.
PVC is manufactured using vinyl chloride monomer, a known carcinogen, and its production requires large amounts of very toxic additives. Many additives are highly volatile, meaning that exposure continues during use. In fact, one of the main issues of PVC is the risk of migration of additives such as plasticisers and lead.
Another issue is the difficulty of recycling PVC articles once they have been used. This is particularly relevant for flexible PVC articles such as tarpaulin, for which the mechanical separation of the coating from the substrate is challenging and makes recycling practically unfeasible and incineration or landfilling the only alternatives for disposal.
For decades, companies have been trying to replace harmful PVC-coated materials with a more sustainable polymer. Although alternatives are available, they are generally too costly to compete with PVC-coated fabrics and do not fully address stringent health and safety requirements.
OBJECTIVES
The TARPAULIFE project builds on 2 previous EU projects, REFRESH (‘Green technology for freshwater sea-transportation based on a flexible containers system’) and XXL-REFRESH (‘Bringing a modular technology for freshwater sea-transportation to full scale’).
TARPAULIFE sets out to demonstrate the possibility of manufacturing large area, POLYOLEFIN-based coated fabrics which could be cost-competitive compared with PVC-coated fabrics for large market applications. The single-material solution facilitates mechanical recycling, and a wide range of recycling solutions with high potential for the application of a circular business approach.
The main focus for the project is waterbags, which represent an innovative way of transporting large amounts of freshwater over the sea.
The main objectives of TARPAULIFE are the:
- Set-up a production plant for full POLYOLEFIN coated fabrics for heavy duty applications
- Prototyping of 2 waterbags made with the new POLYOLEFIN-based coated fabrics and the quantification of the environmental and LCA-LCC benefits compared to the use of PVC-coated fabrics.
- Demonstration of the waterbags to be used as backup freshwater reservoir in 2 locations in Europe, offshore Iceland and in the Mediterranean.
- Replication in other applications such as eco-friendly truck tarps and glacier ice covers
RESULTS
The expected results of the project are:
- Set-up of a production facility of POLYOLEFIN-based coated fabrics, 3 metres in width, with a production capacity of 250 000 square metres (m2) per year.
- Prototyping of 2 waterbags with 2.5 million litre capacity, made with the new material, each measuring about 70 meters, width 9.25 metres and draft about 4.9 metres.
- A reduction of 8 tonnes of PVC by the end of the project.
- Testing of the 2 waterbags in dry conditions in Italy, including assembly and verification of capacities.
- Guidelines for end user operators on assembly and disassembly of the waterbags.
- Testing of 1 waterbag at sea in Iceland: evaluation of filling operations, testing of stability and maneuverability and assessment of the suitability of the new materials to deal with cold waters.
- Assessment of the waterbag as temporary or long-term storage with no alteration of the organoleptic properties of the water.
- Testing of the second waterbag at sea, in different conditions, in Spain, where a freshwater hub of the WATER BANK™ project of NOWA, addressing freshwater scarcity by utilising the waterbags, will be located for its central location in western Mediterranean, close to areas subjected to water scarcity.
- Freshwater from Iceland, transported to the Mediterranean by water tanks, will be used and an evaluation of the discharge of freshwater from the waterbag to water trucks will be performed.
- The possibility of using the water for local use, either as drinking water or to feed livestock will be assessed.
- Assessment of the possibility of addressing freshwater scarcity for humans and agriculture.
- Exploration of methods of feeding livestock in the Mediterranean area through the transportation of freshwater from Iceland and related storage by utilising the project waterbags.
- Enhancement of the use of tarpaulins in agriculture, as transferability activity.
- Creation of marketable solutions for diverse usages.