fiber materials and environmental technologies

The University of Beira Interior (UBI), and above all the institution that preceded it, the Polytechnic Institute of Covilhã (IPC), was created with the aim of training highly qualified professionals, Textile Engineers and Managers, for the textile industry which, in the 1970s, was undergoing a major transformation, with intensive mechanization and automation. UBI’s Fiber Materials and Environmental Technologies (FibEnTech) research unit was set up in 2013 and resulted from the interaction between the former Textile and Paper Materials (MTP) research unit, created in the 1980s, and the Castelo Branco (IPCB) and Beja (IPBeja) Polytechnic Institutes. FibEnTech was thus born to carry out research and create knowledge for that same industry. Later, other sectors also linked to fibrous materials were associated. There is no future without a past, and the ongoing challenges facing companies are not very different, so the past continues to teach us and pave the way for what is being done today. The research being carried out today is a continuation of what has already been done and learned, always bearing in mind that knowledge has evolved and that today we have different and more advanced scientific and technological means. Subsequently, other collaborations were established, both national and international, with a view to its strategic consolidation. Currently, in addition to its integrated researchers, FibEnTech also has the collaboration of researchers from other UBI research units, in particular the Centre for Mechanical and Aerospace Science and Technologies (C-MAST) and the Centre of Materials and Building Technologies (C-MADE).
FibEnTech is a unique research unit that brings together fundamental and applied research skills for the development and characterization of fibrous, structured and composite materials for the textile, cellulose, paper and packaging, construction, health and well-being and automotive sectors, using mainly natural and renewable raw materials, through innovative and energetically and environmentally sustainable processes and technologies. The analysis of the sustainability of new products and processes, as well as the recovery and treatment of solid waste, such as textiles (post-consumption) and forestry, gaseous and liquid waste resulting from the processes, from the perspective of the circular economy, is one of the unit’s priorities, thus integrating the research themes of Fibrous Materials and Environmental Technologies. Another priority is the development of technologies and products that create added value and promote carbon sequestration. The Unit therefore carries out specific and common activities, namely energy intensity, water consumption and the environmental impacts of processes and products.
FibEnTech is attentive and keeps up with technological developments in terms of digitalization, sustainable production, the (re)use of resources and the creation of new value-added products. This paradigm is evident in the objectives defined in the unit’s project.