Arkema and Freshape Forge Deeper Collaboration on 100% Bio-Based Composite Solutions
Source:China Composites Expo  June 03, 2026
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SHANGHAI - A delegation from Arkema, a global leader in specialty materials, recently visited Freshape's Shanghai office. This marked the first formal meeting between the two companies, following preliminary joint technical development and validation. The primary objectives were to gain a deeper understanding of each other's proprietary technologies and to expand the breadth and depth of collaborative projects.

Arkema, headquartered in France, is renowned for its flagship product, Rilsan® PA11, the world's first 100% bio-based high-performance polyamide, boasting over 70 years of commercial application. Rilsan® PA11 is derived entirely from renewable castor beans. Committed to reducing its product carbon footprint, Arkema announced that effective January 2025, the global carbon footprint of its PA11 has been reduced to just 1.3 kg CO₂e/kg - an approximate 80% reduction compared to traditional fossil-fuel-based long-chain polyamides.

"As designers of materials and innovative solutions, Arkema dedicated to continuously lowering our product carbon footprint, delivering high-performance, sustainable, and circular bio-based material solutions to our customers." said Liu Xunkun, Business Director for Transportation and Other Markets, Arkema Greater China. "
Freshape, headquartered in Switzerland, has developed HiWood, the world's first production-ready wood fiber-reinforced material. Using natural wood as its base, HiWood physically restructures the wood's internal architecture through a continuous wood modification technology. At a density of approximately 1.3 g/cm³, HiWood achieves an impressive Young's modulus exceeding 40 GPa and a flexural strength of 450 MPa - performance comparable to glass fiber and rivaling metal -– while remaining fully biodegradable. Within one year of its launch, HiWood captured both the SAMPE and CCE-JEC international innovation awards.

Arkema builds 100% bio-based polymers starting from the molecular structure of chemicals, while Freshape starts with natural fibers to create 100% bio-based reinforcement materials. Though their technological paths differ, they converge clearly on the mission of "full bio-based renewability from source to end product" - the very foundation of their partnership.

The complete integration of HiWood high-performance wood fibers with bio-based Rilsan® PA11 resin yields a novel composite material that is 100% bio-based, renewable, and recyclable. HiWood fibers, sourced from natural wood, are inherently renewable. The bio-based PA11 resin can be recycled and reclaimed through Arkema's Virtucycle® program. Together, they establish a full-lifecycle environmental trust mechanism of "renewable + recyclable." Amid increasingly stringent global ESG regulations, this consistent environmental profile offers downstream brands a verifiable sustainability solution originating directly from the supply chain.

During the exchange, the two companies conducted in-depth and detailed discussions regarding PA11 prepregs. Prepreg is considered the "foundation" (or "tower base") of the composites industry. By pre-impregnating reinforcement fibers with resin matrix to create semi-finished rolls, downstream manufacturers can directly proceed to lamination and compression molding, eliminating on-site compounding of fiber and resin. Currently, the global prepreg market exceeds USD $7 billion, with the fastest-growing segment being thermoplastic resin-based prepregs. The key breakthroughs are recyclability and exceptionally high molding efficiency, positioning this material route as a priority for industries demanding high-volume production cycles, such as automotive and rail transportation.

This is a primary reason why both companies have identified PA11 prepreg as a key target for their next phase of collaboration. HiWood unidirectional (UD) wood fiber tape provides high specific strength and specific modulus in the fiber direction, bearing the primary load. Rilsan® PA11 acts as the matrix, imparting interlaminar toughness and formability. As both are low-density materials, the resulting composite components achieve significant lightweighting while maintaining structural rigidity. Freshape currently offers HiWood PA prepreg based on a petroleum-based PA matrix. The collaboration with Arkema aims to upgrade the traditional matrix to Rilsan® PA11, creating a fully bio-based system combining both reinforcement and matrix. This expands the application landscape from automotive interiors to structural components, and further to consumer electronics, sports equipment, aerospace, and beyond.

Beyond fiber-reinforced composites, Freshape and Arkema are also exploring in-depth collaboration in several composite sub-sectors, with in-mold injection molding emerging as a prominent direction. As a mass-production-capable molding process, in-mold injection can create a wood-grain decorative surface on plastic parts. However, the limited radial strength of traditional wood materials makes them prone to cracking during processing and subsequent use, long restricting the stable mass production of natural wood-grain injection-molded parts.

To overcome this bottleneck, Freshape developed a HiWood grade specifically for in-mold injection molding. This specification uses a hot-pressed composite consisting of two layers of wood fiber paper, two layers of PA11 film, and one layer of backed wood veneer with adhesive, featuring a 0°/90° orthogonal layup design. Tests show that longitudinal tensile strength is 1.8 to 4.5 times that of conventional wood veneer, while transverse tensile strength is 4.8 to 8.3 times higher - for the first time providing balanced bidirectional load-bearing capacity to wood-based surfaces. At equivalent thickness, both mechanical properties and UV aging resistance are significantly enhanced. The single-layer thickness of just 0.1 mm provides excellent flexibility for curved-surface forming, making it adaptable to various complex product geometries in the in-mold injection process.

When HiWood meets Rilsan® PA11 in the mold, polar groups on the cellulose surface form a tight interfacial bond with the polyamide molecular chains. HiWood constructs a high-rigidity protective shell on the surface, while PA11 provides core toughness and cushioning. This combination of rigidity and toughness enables the stable mass production of wood-based in-mold injection molded parts. Regarding lightweighting, with a density of only 1.03 g/cm³, PA11 is among the lightest engineering nylons. HiWood achieves its ultra-high modulus at approximately 1.3 g/cm³. The combination of these low densities results in final components that are significantly lighter while maintaining structural rigidity.

Both companies are now leveraging specific projects to explore further possibilities for bio-based material collaboration across more fields. While their technological paths differ, their direction is aligned: Arkema starts from the chemical molecular structure, integrating upstream castor cultivation and monomer synthesis to build a full-value-chain bio-based polymer solution. Freshape starts with natural fibers, extending downstream to end products and consumer applications, achieving a breakthrough in the mass production of wood fiber-reinforced materials.

This meeting between the principals from both companies not only clarified specific collaborative projects and directions but also transforms their chance encounter into the inevitable development of the fully bio-based materials landscape.