The project ran between November 2023 and May 2024.
The aim of project was to develop bio-based prototype ski waxes and to evaluate and benchmark them with commercial petroleum-based ski waxes. The hypothesis is that the more water repellent (hydrophobic), the better transportation of the water film away from the ski/snow interface, providing lower friction and better glide. The ski waxes showed similar hydrophobicity and in the glide tests on snow, it was difficult to separate the bio-based and commercial ski wax both when considering the total glide and in the pairwise comparisons. These results show that the bio-based prototypes are comparable to commercial ski wax. Having similar glide function, the advantage of the bio-based ski wax is that it contains only natural ingredients and break down more rapidly in the environment. The biodegradation was compared between one bio-based and one petroleum-based ski wax using a respiration test where formed CO2was quantified over time. The estimated number of days required for complete degradation of the bio-based ski wax and commercial ski wax would be 223 days and 335 days, respectively, if the degradation continues at the same rate and if all carbon is converted to CO2.
Participants
Vallakokerskan AB and RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB.
Budget
The project’s total budget was 806 000 SEK.