The Badana project will develop a process to extract high-quality natural fibre from banana plant waste in order to exploit the fibres’ properties in polymer composites to be used in rotational- and injection-moulded products. This will be for the benefit of SMEs involved in the production of bananas and SMEs that supply OEMs and end-users with sustainable moulded composite products in the automotive, packaging, and consumer goods industries.

This will provide the SMEs with new market opportunities through satisfying the rapidly-growing demand of product manufacturers for ecoaesthetic (green) materials. 

Fibre production will be integrated into the banana crop cycle, by extracting the fibre from the pseudostems of banana trees. This project will not displace food production, because the fibre is obtained once the fruit has been harvested, and each plant only fruits once. After giving fruit, it dies and a new plant starts developing.

So the raw material is, in fact, the wastes of banana food
production.

Badana is supported by funding under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union.

Project Number: FP7-SME-2008-1 - 232287

Badana aims to develop high-quality banana fibre suitable to be applied to polymer processing, such as injections and rotational moulding.

Click here to read all the objectives

The project is made up of 12 partners comprising SMEs, RTDs and other enterprises from around the European Union.

Click here to view the project partners