Visa Cash App RB pushes for the ecological transition with carbon fiber for the VCARB flaps made by the Hera Group for the Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola
May 10, 2024
Noin the heart of the motorvalley, a few steps from the Imola racetrack, where the sixth Formula 1 round will take place next week, the Grand Prix of Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagnais a pioneering partnership for the ecological transition between Hera Group and the RB Visa Cash App. The goal is to create a increasingly sustainable single-seater using, within the production process, recycled and regenerated carbon fiber. Recovering precious material such as carbon fiber will generate positive repercussions terms of sustainability and circularitygiving a second life to this fundamental material in the creation of elements for cars in the world of motorsport, saving up to 150 tons of CO2. We are talking about approximately 4000 trees planted over the course of a year, therefore a significant number for a Formula 1 team that is increasingly committed to reducing environmental pollution.
PFor this reason, starting from the race weekend in Imola, the Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda’s cars will have front wing flaps made from recycled carbon fiber molds. “The partnership with the Formula 1 Visa Cash App RB team is fully consistent with our decarbonization objectives and development of the circular economy – declared Andrea RamondaCEO of Herambiente – and has a strategic value with a view to promoting short supply chains (reshoring) and circulars 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”. Enrico FastelliFacility Management & HSE Director of Visa Cash App RB added that “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. 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 addresses with a holistic vision aimed at seizing all possible opportunities to overcome the common challenge of climate change”.
THEThe Hera Group will participate in the RB Visa Cash App project through its subsidiary Herambientethe first national operator in the waste treatment sector, which has already begun to experiment with the carbon fiber recovery process some time ago, in collaboration with the technological partner Curti, in a pilot plant installed in 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 euros, as part of the PNRR. Innovation and recycling processes will be at the center of the activity of the new plant on the Santerno, where Herambiente will apply pyrogasification to the processing waste of composite materials reinforced with carbon fiber and, through hot technology, will separate the carbon fibers from the other resins, regenerating a fiber with performances comparable to new ones and completing a potentially infinitely repeatable process. 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.
