Innovative geogrid technology: PROGEO

Protection from erosion: technical textiles will support and fix endangered countryside areas

Climate change and natural catastrophes such as flooding or widespread droughts can damage the economic basis for an entire region. Besides well organised catastrophe management, the protection of embankments and the stabilisation with the help of natural vegetation and greening should be the main objective of each national authority. Geotextiles play an important role in this task. They can be made of woven, nonwoven and warp knitted structures which all have to be adapted to the usage specifications. Currently, the processing of products for erosion protection and the enormous manual effort involved in installation generates high costs. Therefore, an effective in-line processing is needed.

Innovative solutions for agriculture, landscaping and renaturation

The project PROGEO focuses on the investigation of a super coarse geogrid especially suitable for stony, steep slopes and embankments. The combination of high tensile tenacity in lengthwise and crosswise directions will allow large amounts of topsoil to be kept, even in humid conditions. Additionally, the retaining function for water storage and fertiliser and/or seed integration will enforce vegetation growth.

Sustainable industrial structures to reduce cost for geotextiles

Besides the geogrid technology itself, the installation technology is important to develop a concept that could be cost effectively applied. Every surface needs its own tailor-made geogrid, using material that is available and suitable for the area. To find a solution to the modular processing of the super coarse geogrid, the construction of a warp knitting lab machine will be investigated. The selection of regional raw materials will include hay, wool, hemp and flax as well as textile production waste, and the rope-like structures used for the geogrid allow the functions of drainage and erosion protection to be combined. The installation technology will be developed in a dedicated work package.

Business potential for the whole technical textile industry

Technical textiles represent 25 % of the total textile production worldwide and are therefore an important subsector that is constantly growing. Geotextiles in particular, have a growing market potential of about 5 percent per year. PROGEO is expected to convince the market because economic savings and consequent disaster prevention are feasible.

For more information visit www.stfi.de/progeo/about.html

Contact

Torsten Brüning, FKT – Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V., Tel: +49 3072 6220 42, Email: tbruening@textil-mode.de

Participants from Germany

FKT – Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V., Berlin – Coordinating Association
STFI – Sächsisches Textilforschungsinstitut e.V., Chemnitz – Researcher

Participants from Poland

SPG –Polish Geotextiles Producers Association, Bielsko – Association
ATH –Institute of Textile Engineering and Polymer Materials at the University of Bielsko – Researcher

©pictures: Forschungskuratorium Textil e.V