Ambitious objective for RB and the Hera Group
In the heart of the Motor Valley, a stone’s throw from the Enzo e Dino Ferrari racetrack in Imola, a pioneering partnership is born in the name of the ecological transition between Hera Group and Racing Bulls (Visa Cash App RB F1 Team). The objective is ambitious: to create an increasingly sustainable single-seater using, within the production process, recycled and regenerated carbon fiber in the innovative plant to be launched in the coming months in Imola. Recovering such a precious material as carbon fiber generates positive repercussions in terms of sustainability and circularity, giving a second life to this fundamental composite material in motorsport. Thanks to this collaboration, once the industrialization process is completed, it will be possible to save up to 150 tons of CO2 equivalent in a year, a savings equal to 4,000 trees planted. For the next Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, scheduled at the Imola Autodrome from 17 to 19 May, the front wing flaps of the VCARB01 cars driven by Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were obtained using molds made with carbon fiber recycled.
“The partnership with the Formula One Visa Cash App RB team is fully consistent with our objectives of decarbonisation and development of the circular economy – he claims Andrea RamondaCEO of Herambiente – and has a strategic value with a view to promoting short (reshoring) and circular supply chains in Italy and Europe. Regenerating carbon fiber is a pioneering project for which it is important to work as a team. In this way each actor makes resources and skills available with the common objective of generating environmental, economic and social benefits”.
“The carbon fiber recycling project developed by Herambiente aligns perfectly with the objectives of VCARB and the Red Bull GmbH group for the reduction of CO2 emissions in the Formula 1 World Championship – he comments Enrico FastelliFacility Management & HSE Director of Visa Cash App RB – the promotion of the circular economy, the attention to territorial projects and the development of new technologies that make motorsport increasingly sustainable and respectful of the environment are part of a series of activities that VCARB tackles with a holistic vision aimed at capturing all possible opportunities to overcome the common challenge of climate change”.
The collaboration between Herambiente and Visa Cash App RB
The Hera Group participates in the project with the Formula One team Visa Cash App RB through its subsidiary Herambiente, the first national operator in the waste treatment sector, with around a hundred certified and cutting-edge plants. Herambiente began experimenting with the carbon fiber recovery process some time ago, in collaboration with its technological partner Curti, in a pilot plant installed at the headquarters of the Master in Composite Materials of the University of Bologna within the Faenza Technopole. The turning point will come with the start-up of the industrial-scale plant in Imola, among the first of its kind in Europe: it will be operational from the next few months and thanks to the innovative technology and the strategic relevance of the materials involved, it has obtained a contribution of over 2.2 million euroswithin the PNRR.
Innovation and recycling processes will be at the center of the activity of the new Imola plant, where Herambiente will apply the pyrogasification to the processing waste of composite materials reinforced with carbon fiber and, through hot technology, it will separate the carbon fibers from the other resins, regenerating a fiber with performances comparable to new ones and following a potentially infinitely repeatable path.
The path of carbon fiber
The samples provided by Visa Cash App RB, derived from clippings of rolling molds now out of use, have been processed to obtain recycled fiber capable of being reused for the production of new moulds. Once this process is completed, certified materials are obtained that are suitable for use in new components. The agreement with Visa Cash App RB will allow the recovery of significant quantities of carbon fiber normally destined for landfill while developing valuable know-how for this type of composite material, with a strategic benefit from both an environmental and economic point of view and with possible future uses in the motorsport and automotive sector.
