Reinventing The Wheel: Green&Bike Makes Cycling More Sustainable

 

Akkodis' Green&Bike goes an extra mile with eco-friendly design

With the drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution in cities, and the importance of physical activity for health all in the spotlight around the world, cycling is growing in popularity.

According to European Union statistics, 14.7 million bicycles were produced in the region in 2022, up 29% from a decade earlier.

While pedal-powered two-wheeled (or three-wheeled) transport is already an environmentally responsible way to travel compared to many other modes of transport, the Green&Bike project set out to prove that even here, with the right design, processes and materials, there is room for improvement.

“We wanted to show how far we could go with environmentally-friendly design,” says Mykyta Kostiuk, Green&Bike’s project manager since 2021, based at Akkodis’s Marignane site near Marseille in southern France.

Environmentally-minded choices

The Green&Bike vehicle is a tricycle designed to be sturdy, accessible (no driver’s license is required) and versatile: it can be used as a personal mode of transport as well as to transport passengers or goods. It’s more flexible–and much greener–than a car, but provides greater protection and comfort than a standard bicycle, making it a viable replacement for a car in many scenarios.

“Bicycles are already fairly green, but we wanted to show we could go even further. That was our design philosophy – all the technical choices were made with sustainability as a priority,” Kostiuk says.

For the Green&Bike team, that drive for even greater sustainability meant going back to the drawing board and adopting a ‘cradle-to-grave’ mindset–not just choosing materials that are manufactured from sustainable sources in an environmentally-friendly way, but ones that can be recycled or left to biodegrade naturally at the end of the bicycle’s life.

Transporting materials with zero carbon footprint

The work is taking place in France, and using as many French components and materials as possible is essential to ensuring the project's green credentials. The team considered the CO2 impact of transporting the materials. This led to the Green&Bike concept using recycled polymers.

Additionally, they incorporated flax fiber into the design. They also utilized bamboo-based composite materials that undergo a hi-tech process. This process transforms them into light but strong materials suitable to replace the metals generally used for a bicycle’s frame.

Flax and bamboo are abundantly available in France. Replacing the lithium-ion battery that usually powers electric bikes was a tougher challenge, but one that the Green&Bike experts have successfully managed. Kostiuk describes their solution as a “mechanical battery,” a technology Akkodis is patenting.

Rethinking energy sources

“Replacing the lithium-ion batteries is the most complex thing, but it is important because lithium batteries are very polluting, and we don’t know how to recycle them. We had to completely rethink the energy source,” Kostiuk says.

The battery represents a modern-day return to a tried-and-tested technique instead of an electrochemical reaction. The user winds up the battery to stock the energy needed for their journey.

For now, the mechanical battery is heavier than the lithium-ion battery it replaces, and the team is still testing the battery and its performance.

“The good thing about a bicycle, or a tricycle in our case, is that it's not dangerous. Testing our innovative solution in a helicopter would require much more time to develop because it's a complex and risky machine. A bicycle is a perfect platform for such innovations.

First, we test something simple; we try to reveal the weaknesses and disadvantages. Then the next step will be to scale it up,” Kostiuk says, adding: “We hope that one day this could become a means of energy storage for other types of transportation.”

With Akkodis experts on the case, the Green&Bike project is making rapid progress. Plans are to build the first working prototype in the coming months.

“We’ve already built the very first prototype and tested our first assumptions. It worked and allowed us to move forward with a more advanced concept–the demonstrator. If everything goes well, we will proceed with development, and in a few years, it will be ready to be commercialized.”

Partnering for Sustainable Urban Transport

The team is also working with the French ecological transition agency ADEME and a member of the Extrême Défi (Extreme Challenge) initiative aimed at promoting innovation in sustainable urban transport.

The assembly work is taking place at the company’s site in Poissy, just outside Paris. The city has pledged to become 100% cycle-friendly by 2026, and plans are in place to add hundreds more kilometers of cycle lanes to an already dense network over the coming years.

The Green&Bike team draws on internal expertise in design, materials, and manufacturing. The team also employs the skills and experience of French suppliers, who are used to provide parts and materials for high-tech sectors, including aerospace and automobile manufacturing.

“Our tricycle uses hi-tech expertise and knowledge developed to make airplanes, helicopters, and hi-tech yachts. It showcases the skills of many people and many businesses. We thought that with our mix of engineers, complex skills, and an innovative, sustainable approach, we could do something unique,” Kostiuk says.

“Normally, people do things how they have always been done. We had this new vision to design in an innovative, environmental way. Environmental responsibility has become our primary metric.”