Durability Assessment of Biocomposites Developed in the LIFE RESTART Project

This work is part of the Life Restart project, co-founded by the European Union1, which focuses on developing sustainable materials from renewable resources. In this project, bio-pellets made from polybutylene succinate (PBS) and brewer’s spent grain (BSG), a polysaccharide-rich by-product of the brewing industry, were produced as environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil-based plastics. Understanding how accelerated and natural weathering influence the mechanical, physical, and morphological properties of such materials is essential to predict their long-term performance2,3. In line with this development, the first industrial production site for these materials was set up in Roccavaldina, in the province of Messina (Sicily, Italy). An important aspect of these biocomposites is their durability under natural environmental conditions. To investigate this, PBS/BSG composites (70/30 wt%) were subjected to artificial ageing for 0 h, 300 h, 600 h, and 900 h under controlled laboratory conditions. The materials were prepared by melting compounding and shaped using injection molding. To evaluate their long-term performance, a range of physico-chemical, mechanical, and morphological tests were performed, providing insights into how environmental exposure affects the properties of these biocomposites over time.