40% CO2 savings in concrete and bio-based recyclable 3D laminate

JEC-Composites Innovation Awards 2025 “Sport, Leisure & Recreation”, © ITA

Scientists from the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University were honoured with two JEC Awards at the JEC World 2025 in Paris.

The prize in the ‘Building and Civil Engineering’ category was awarded for the development of Carbon Fibre Stone (CFS). Environmentally friendly CFS can save up to 40% CO₂ in the construction of house walls. CFS is an innovative material that combines stone and bio-based fibres. It serves as an environmentally friendly replacement for CO₂-intensive concrete in house walls. Each square metre of a CFS wall binds 59 kg of CO₂, while conventional cement walls release 98 kg of CO₂.

The ITA won the second JEC award in the “Sports, Leisure & Recreation” category.

The Honey Roots technology is a sustainable surfboard construction realised through a 3D laminate that improves the mechanics and eliminates the need for consumables for the infusion process. The choice of materials is consistently bio-based or recycled to minimise the carbon footprint.

Many thanks to our project partners Techno Carbon Technologies GbR and Kanoa Surfboards.

PhD student and project leader Lars Wollert summarises: “These awards are a recognition of our research activities and show what the ITA stands for

1. the development of innovative products and processes together with a great network of industrial partners,

2. openness for versatile application areas in which fibres of all kinds bring advantages and

3. research in the context of sustainability.”

Contact

Lars Wollert, Researcher
E-Mail: lars.wollert@ita.rwth-aachen.de

About the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University

The core of the ITA Group International Centre for Sustainable Textiles is the research and teaching institution, the Institut für Textiltechnik (ITA) of RWTH Aachen University. The ITA Group International Centre for Sustainable Textiles focuses its core competence on the goal of ensuring the holistic biotransformation of textile technology and thus the use of biological principles for small-scale value-added processes. The ITA Group International Centre for Sustainable Textiles is an international research and training service provider for fibre-based high-performance materials, textile semi-finished products and their manufacturing processes with about 400 employees.